Change in negative attention bias mediates the association between attention bias modification training and depression symptom improvement.

Attention bias modification training (ABMT) is purported to reduce depression by targeting and modifying an attentional bias for sadness-related stimuli. However, few tests of this hypothesis have been completed. Method: The current study examined whether change in attentional bias mediated a previously reported association between ABMT condition (active ABMT, sham ABMT, assessments only; N = 145) and depression symptom change among depressed adults. The pre-registered, primary measure of attention bias was a discretized eye tracking metric that quantified the proportion of trials where gaze time was greater for sad stimuli than neutral stimuli. Results: Contemporaneous longitudinal simplex mediation indicated that change in attentional bias early in treatment partially mediated the effect of ABMT on depression symptoms. Specificity analyses indicated that in contrast to the eye-tracking mediator, reaction time assessments of attentional bias for sad stimuli (mean bias and trial level variability) and lapses in sustained attention did not mediate the association between ABMT and depression change. Results also suggested that mediation effects were limited to a degree by suboptimal measurement of attentional bias for sad stimuli. Conclusion: When effective, ABMT may improve depression in part by reducing an attentional bias for sad stimuli, particularly early on during ABMT.

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The altered early components and the decisive later process underlying attention bias modification in social anxiety: evidence from event-related potentials

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience ◽

10.1093/scan/nsz098 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (12) ◽

pp. 1307-1316 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dong-ni Pan ◽

Yi Wang ◽

Zheng Lei ◽

Yang Wang ◽

Xuebing Li

Keyword(s):

Social Anxiety ◽

Attention Bias ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Symptom Improvement ◽

Emotional Symptoms ◽

Attention Bias Modification ◽

Training Groups ◽

Test Stage ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Bias Modification

Abstract Attention bias modification (ABM) is a potential intervention in relieving social anxiety symptoms, while its underlying neural mechanisms are not yet understood. The current study included 63 college students with social anxiety. Participants were assigned to the attention modification program (AMP, n = 20), the attention control condition (ACC, n = 20) and the passive waiting group (PW, n = 23). Questionnaires and the emotional Stroop task with EEG recordings were used to assess whether and how the 4-week ABM period affected emotional symptoms and specific emotional processing. Results showed that the two training groups (AMP and ACC) produced comparable emotional improvements and both showed a decrease in negative bias compared with the PW group. The ERP results indicated that despite no significant ERP changes in the PW group, the ACC group exhibited a greater N1, whereas the AMP group exhibited a reduced VPP at the post-test stage compared to the pre-test stage. Besides, both training groups showed a similar late positive potential (LPP) reduction. Notably, the reduction in LPP was positively correlated with behavioral and symptom improvement. Thus, manipulations unique to ABM (face-target contingency) primarily modulate the early attention distribution of material-related stimuli. However, the clinical benefits of attention training may be due to later cognitive-affective mechanisms.

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