Craving is everything: An eye-tracking exploration of attentional bias in binge drinking

Background: Attentional bias towards alcohol-related stimuli is a core characteristic of severe alcohol use disorders (AUD), directly linked to clinical variables (e.g. alcohol consumption, relapse). Nevertheless, the extent of this bias in subclinical populations remains poorly documented. This is particularly true for binge drinking, an alcohol consumption pattern highly prevalent in youth, characterised by an alternation between excessive intakes and withdrawal periods. Aims: We used eye-tracking to: (a) measure attentional bias in binge drinking, (b) determine its time course by dissociating early/late processing stages, (c) clarify its specificity for alcohol-related stimuli compared to other appetitive stimulations and (d) explore its modulation by current craving intensity. Methods: Binge drinkers ( n=42) and matched controls ( n=43) performed a visual probe task, requiring visual targets preceded by pairs of pictures to be processed, with three conditions (i.e. alcohol vs. soft drink, alcohol vs. high-calorie food, high-calorie food vs. low-calorie food). Results: No group difference was observed for early processing (i.e. first area of interest visited). Dwell times highlighted a bias towards soft drinks and healthy food among controls, without any global bias towards alcohol in binge drinkers. Centrally, a comparison of binge drinkers with low versus high current craving intensity indicated that binge drinking was associated with a bias towards alcohol and high-calorie food only in the presence of a high craving towards these stimuli. Conclusion: Attentional bias towards alcohol reported in severe AUD is only found in binge drinkers in the presence of high craving and is generalised to other appetitive cues.

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Attentional Bias to Untrustworthy Faces: Evidence From Eye Tracking Data

Advances in Psychological Science ◽

10.3724/sp.j.1042.2015.01508 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 23 (9) ◽

pp. 1508

Author(s):

Qiandong WANG ◽

Qinggong LI ◽

Kaikai CHEN ◽

Genyue FU

Keyword(s):

Eye Tracking ◽

Attentional Bias ◽

Tracking Data

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Relationships between attention to emotion and anxiety among a community sample of adolescents

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291720003360 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Benjamin C. Mullin ◽

Jacob B. W. Holzman ◽

Laura Pyle ◽

Emmaly L. Perks ◽

Yaswanth Chintaluru ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Anxiety Disorders ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Attentional Bias ◽

Community Sample ◽

Full Range ◽

Small Samples ◽

Control Analysis ◽

Attentional Processes ◽

Anxious Youth ◽

Case Control Analysis

Abstract Background Attentional bias to threat has been implicated as a cognitive mechanism in anxiety disorders for youth. Yet, prior studies documenting this bias have largely relied on a method with questionable reliability (i.e. dot-probe task) and small samples, few of which included adolescents. The current study sought to address such limitations by examining relations between anxiety – both clinically diagnosed and dimensionally rated – and attentional bias to threat. Methods The study included a community sample of adolescents and employed eye-tracking methodology intended to capture possible biases across the full range of both automatic (i.e. vigilance bias) and controlled attentional processes (i.e. avoidance bias, maintenance bias). We examined both dimensional anxiety (across the full sample; n = 215) and categorical anxiety in a subset case-control analysis (n = 100) as predictors of biases. Results Findings indicated that participants with an anxiety disorder oriented more slowly to angry faces than matched controls. Results did not suggest a greater likelihood of initial orienting to angry faces among our participants with anxiety disorders or those with higher dimensional ratings of anxiety. Greater anxiety severity was associated with greater dwell time to neutral faces. Conclusions This is the largest study to date examining eye-tracking metrics of attention to threat among healthy and anxious youth. Findings did not support the notion that anxiety is characterized by heightened vigilance or avoidance/maintenance of attention to threat. All effects detected were extremely small. Links between attention to threat and anxiety among adolescents may be subtle and highly dependent on experimental task dimensions.

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