Different Patterns of Attentional Bias in Subjects with Spider Phobia: A Dot Probe Task using Virtual Reality Environment

Abstract

Background: Cognitive theories posit that small animal phobics develop a hypervigilanceavoidance attentional pattern when coping with threat. However, empirical research has failed to obtain consistent results. We aimed at addressing this issue by diminishing the methodological flaws that hinder the internal and ecological validity of previous studies. Methods:In this research, 34 spider fearful and 33 non-fearful participants completed a probe dot task using virtual reality environments. A subjective threshold for each participant was established. Position of the probe (low vs. up) and interval between trials (regular vs. irregular) were controlled.Results: Compared to non-fearful individuals, spider phobics showed preconscious attentional bias towards threat in unexpected (low and irregular) trials. Moreover, phobics tended to display conscious attentional bias away from threat in unexpected (irregular) trials. Severity of fear did not correlate with attentional bias. Limitations:We did not use eye movement tracking as well as potential biomarkers for attentional bias (e.g., event-related potentials). The risk of type-I error cannot be ruled out. Conclusions:These findings partly support the hyper vigilance-avoidance pattern by considering some contextual factors that may enhance uncertainty in phobics. The alleged role of attentional bias in phobias is also questioned.(conscious) processing [7,14]. This methodological flaw precludes the determination of subjective threshold for each subject by assuming a generalized (objective) awareness threshold for the whole sample. Furthermore, the ecological validity of these studies is still inadequate, and most of them employ threatening pictures to assess phobia to spider rather than more realistic environments [5,7,15]. In this framework, virtual reality may be considered an alternative approach to enhancing the ecological validity from these studies by using more realistic, immersive, and interactive scenarios. To date, virtual reality has been mainly adapted to treat individuals diagnosed with different mental disorders such as anxiety disorders or eating disorders [16][17][18]. However, its application in basic cognitive research is lacking. Aims and hypothesesBased on previous research, our study aimed at elucidating the time course of emotional processing of threat in individuals with spider phobia by increasing the internal and ecological validity of the results obtained. We hypothesized that phobic individuals, relative to nonphobic controls, will display a preconscious attentional bias towards threatening stimuli as well as a conscious attentional bias away from threatening stimuli. In addition, we postulate that this result will be altered by the degree of uncertainty and uncontrollability concerning the appearance and position of the threatening stimuli. That is, phobic individuals will exhibit enhanced preconscious attentional bias towards as well as increased conscious attentional bias away