Attention Bias Modification for Anxiety: A Biobehavioral Study

描述（由申请人提供）：焦虑的特征是对威胁的注意偏向；也就是说，焦虑的个体会优先关注威胁性信息而不是非威胁性信息。最近的研究表明，通过注意偏见修正（ABM）来减少这种偏见，可以减少焦虑症状和注意力的变化。尽管这些影响有望为焦虑的替代干预的发展提供帮助，但对ABM影响的潜在过程知之甚少。拟议的研究将使用行为和神经生理学相结合的方法来识别威胁偏见的生物标志物，并探索ABM改变的注意过程。申请人在过去的四年中作为研究生接受过神经生理测量（脑电图；EEG）的培训。在此期间，申请人接受了各种事件相关电位（erp）的培训，这些电位跟踪相对自动和更受控制的注意过程。该F-31将加强申请人在ERP分析和处理参与者焦虑样本方面的培训。申请人的短期目标是识别威胁偏见的ERP生物标志物，并使用ERP跟踪ABM后对威胁的关注变化。本研究的目的是探讨早期的、相对自动的威胁注意和后期的、更受控制的威胁注意是否与威胁偏见有关，或者是否受到反导的调节。长期目标包括使用相同的方法来调查在家里长时间管理ABM任务的效果，而不是在实验室进行有限的训练。拟议的研究结果将被用作飞行员数据，以准备F-32拨款来解决这个问题。拟定的研究培训计划对申请人的研究计划的发展和成为一名独立研究人员的能力至关重要。拟议的研究将在亨特学院进行，主要发起人和一位顾问位于该学院；另外一个赞助者是特拉维夫大学。两位顾问都是主要发起人的合作者，这将允许申请人与焦虑干预和ABM领域的主要研究人员进行互动。拟议研究的结果有可能为识别焦虑个体提供信息，并有助于未来评估ABM作为可行治疗方案的有效性的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Anxiety is characterized by an attention bias toward threat; that is, anxious individuals will preferentially attend to threatening versus non-threatenig information. Recent research has demonstrated that reducing this bias, through attention bias modification (ABM), leads to reductions in anxious symptoms and changes in attention. Although these effects are promising for the development of an alternative intervention for anxiety, little is known about the processes underlying ABM effects. The proposed research will use a combination of behavioral and neurophysiological measures to identify biomarkers for the threat bias and to explore the attentional processes altered by ABM. The applicant has had training in neurophysiological measures (electroencephalography; EEG) over the past four years as a graduate student. During this time the applicant has been trained on a variety of event-related potentials (ERPs) that track relatively automatic and more controlled attentional processes. This F-31 will enhance the applicant's training in both ERP analysis and working with anxious samples of participants. The applicant's short term goals are to identify ERP biomarkers for the threat bias and to track changes in attention to threat following ABM using ERPs. The aims of the proposed research will explore whether early and relatively automatic attention or later and more controlled attention to threat are implicated in the threat bias or modulated by ABM. Long-term goals include using this same methodology to investigate the effects of administering the ABM task at home over an extended period of time, rather than in the laboratory for a limited amount of training. The results of the proposed research will be used as pilot data to prepare an F-32 grant to address this question. The proposed research training plan is critical for the development of the applicant's program of research and ability to become an independent researcher. The proposed research will be conducted at Hunter College where the primary sponsor and one consultant are located; an additional sponsor is at Tel-Aviv University. Both consultants are collaborators of the primary sponsor, which will allow the applicant to interact with leading researchers in the field of anxiety interventions and ABM. Findings from the proposed research have the potential to inform identification of individuals with anxiety and to contribute to future studies assessing the efficacy of ABM as a viable treatment alternative. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The threat bias, or preferential attention to threatening versus non-threatening information, may play a causal role in the development and maintenance of anxiety. The threat bias can be modified using the attention bias modification (ABM) task; several studies have shown that training attention away from threat reduces both the threat bias and symptoms of anxiety. However, few studies have examined the processes underlying these effects. The proposed research aims to use a multi-method approach using event-related potentials to measure the threat bias and to track changes in attention to threat. This proposal has the potential to identify biomarkers for the threat bias and to lay the groundwork for future studies of the efficacy of ABM as a viable treatment alternative for anxiety.