Early hypervigilance and later avoidance: Event-related potentials track the processing of threatening stimuli in anxiety.
Behav Res Ther
; 158: 104181, 2022 11.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36087438
ABSTRACT
Avoidance behavior is a core symptom of anxiety disorders that may hinder adaptation. Anxiety disorders are heterogeneous and previous research suggests to decompose anxiety into two dimensions anxious apprehension and anxious arousal. How these two dimensions are associated with avoidance of and exposure to threatening stimuli, as well as their accompanying neural processes, is barely understood. We examined threat processing using event-related potentials (N1, LPP) from 134 individuals considering the influence of anxiety dimensions. During a two-phase picture-viewing task the participants watched neutral and threatening pictures, which they were instructed to either avoid or attend to during repeated presentations. Results showed that threatening compared to neutral pictures were associated with increased attention allocation (N1) and in-depth processing (LPP), modulated by task-instructions (lower during avoidance). Further, increased anxious apprehension was associated with heightened automatic attention (increased N1), followed by reduced LPP amplitudes for threatening pictures suggesting reduced in-depth processing. During re-exposure, threatening pictures were associated with increased in-depth processing, with no difference between previously avoided and maintained pictures. Together, these results illustrate that avoidance and high anxious apprehension seem to lead to similar neural changes in the processing of aversive images that may conflict with long-term adaptation.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Eletroencefalografia
/
Potenciais Evocados
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Behav Res Ther
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article