Ethnic differences in behavioral and physiological indicators of sensitivity to threat.

The clinical presentation of anxiety may differ between Hispanics/Latinx (H/L) and non-H/L, although findings on ethnic differences in self-reported anxiety symptoms have been mixed. Fewer studies have focused on ethnic differences in quick and relatively automatic laboratory-assessed indicators of anxiety symptoms, which have the potential to be more objective indicators than self-report. Therefore, the present study examined ethnic differences in two laboratory-assessed indicators of threat sensitivity (an important transdiagnostic mechanism of anxiety): attentional bias to threat and electromyography startle reactivity to threat. White H/L (n = 117) and White non-H/L (n = 168) adults who were matched on demographics and lifetime psychopathology (including anxiety) completed a dot-probe task to assess attentional bias to threat and the No-Predictable-Unpredictable threat (NPU) task to assess startle reactivity to threat. Results indicated that H/L displayed less Slow OrientationRB (ß = -0.27, p = 0.032, R2ß∗ = 0.02), and increased Slow DisengagementRB (ß = 0.31, p = 0.016, R2ß∗ = 0.02) compared to non-H/L. H/L exhibited blunted overall startle compared to non-H/L (ß = -0.30, p = 0.014, R2ß∗ = 0.02), but groups did not differ in startle reactivity to either predictable or unpredictable threat. In summary, H/L and non-H/L may differ in their experience and presentation of anxiety symptoms and such differences may vary across indicators of sensitivity to threat.

The impact of aversive context on early threat detection in trauma exposed individuals and associations with post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Introduction: Prolonged attentional bias to threat (AB) is associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). However, it is unclear whether this relationship extends to early threat detection (elicited by masked stimuli) and/or varies if AB is measured during an aversive context. Methods: Two trauma-exposed samples of either intervention-seekers (N = 50) or community members (N = 98) completed a masked dot-probe task to measure early AB to angry faces in safe vs. aversive contexts (i.e., during threat of aversive noises). Results: Linear mixed effects models showed that an aversive context increased the orienting responses in both samples; however, PTSS did not moderate these effects in either sample. Limitations: Sample size and heterogeneity of trauma-type may have impacted effect of PTSS on AB. Conclusion: These results highlight the importance of assessing AB in varying contexts and examining generalizability across populations. Given prior research, the results also suggest that increased AB in PTSS may only be present for later attentional processes rather than early threat detection, at least with behavioral methods.