Threat Effects on Attention Networks in Individuals with a History of Externalizing Behaviors

Research identifying the biobehavioral processes that link threat exposure to cognitive alterations can inform treatments designed to reduce perpetration of stress-induced aggression. The present study attempted to specify the effects of relatively predictable (acute) vs unpredictable (diffuse) threat on two theoretically relevant attention networks, attentional alerting and executive control; and to examine the extent to which aggression proneness moderated those effects. In a sample with high rates of externalizing behaviors (n = 74), we measured event-related brain activity during an attention network test that manipulated cognitive systems activation under distinct contexts of threat (NPU manipulation). The first set of results confirmed that threat exposure alters alerting and executive control. The predictable threat condition, relative to unpredictable threat, increased visual alerting (alert cue N1) and decreased attention (P3) to subsequent task-relevant stimuli (flanker). In contrast, overall threat and unpredictable threat conditions were associated with alerting-related quicker responding and poorer conflict resolution (congruence-related flanker N2 reductions and RT interference). The second set of results indicated that different operationalizations of aggression proneness were inconsistently related to threat-related alterations in cognitive systems. While these results regarding threat-related cognitive alterations in aggression require more study, they nevertheless expand what is known about threat-related modulation of cognition in a sample of individuals with histories of externalizing behaviors.