title: Attentional impairment in anxiety: inefficiency in expanding the scope of attention.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The ability to attend to relevant visual information in a proficient manner is central to most day-to-day tasks. Research suggests, however, that this ability is compromised by anxiety such that anxiety results in narrowing the focus of visual attention.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the current study (N = 58), we used the Attention Scope Task [1999: Gerontology 45:102-109] to examine the hypothesis that low-anxious individuals would be more proficient than high-anxious individuals in their scope of attention, that is, high-anxious individuals would have a larger scope of visual attention than low-anxious individuals. Additionally, we hypothesized that low-anxious individuals would be more proficient than high-anxious individuals in their ability to expand their scope of attention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results revealed that, compared to low-anxious individuals, high-anxious individuals were impaired only in their ability to expand their scope of attention from a small area to a larger one. Inclusion of a depressed control group in the study revealed that our findings are specific to the effect of anxiety and not depressive symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, high-anxious individuals do not appear to have a smaller absolute scope of attention but instead seem to have difficulty expanding their attention scope dynamically. We discuss our results in relation to cognitive inflexibility in anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Joint Doctoral Program of San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego, CA 92120, USA.
authors.forename: Sadia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Najmi
authors.forename: Jennie M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kuckertz
authors.forename: Nader
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Amir
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult