title: Training-associated changes and stability of attention bias in youth: Implications for Attention Bias Modification Treatment for pediatric anxiety.
abstract: Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT), an emerging treatment for anxiety disorders, is thought to modify underlying, stable patterns of attention. Therefore, ABMT research should take into account the impact of attention bias stability on attention training response, especially in pediatric populations. ABMT research typically relies on the dot-probe task, where individuals detect a probe following an emotional-neutral stimulus pair. The current research presents two dot-probe experiments relevant to ABMT and attention-bias stability. In Experiment 1, anxious youth receiving 8-weeks of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) were randomly assigned to ABMT that trains attention towards happy faces (n=18) or placebo (n=18). Two additional comparison groups, anxious youth receiving only CBT (n=17) and healthy comparison youth (n=16), were studied. Active attention training towards happy faces did not augment clinician-rated response to CBT; however, individuals receiving training exhibited reductions on self-report measures of anxiety earlier than individuals receiving CBT only. In Experiment 2, healthy youth (n=12) completed a dot-probe task twice while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Intra-class correlation demonstrated stability of neural activation in response to attention bias in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and amygdala. Together, these two studies investigate the ways in which attention-bias stability may impact future work on ABMT.
authors.affiliation: Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 9000 Rockville Pike, Building 15K, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. j.britton@miami.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Britton
authors.forename: Yair
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bar-Haim
authors.forename: Michelle A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Clementi
authors.forename: Lindsey S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Sankin
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Tomer
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shechner
authors.forename: Maxine A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Norcross
authors.forename: Carolyn N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Spiro
authors.forename: Kara M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Lindstrom
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Pine
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D057566:Self Report; D016896:Treatment Outcome