title: Anxiety type modulates immediate versus delayed engagement of attention-related brain regions.
abstract: Background Habituation of the fear response, critical for the treatment of anxiety, is inconsistently observed during exposure to threatening stimuli. One potential explanation for this inconsistency is differential attentional engagement with negatively valenced stimuli as a function of anxiety type. Methods The present study tested this hypothesis by examining patterns of neural habituation associated with anxious arousal, characterized by panic symptoms and immediate engagement with negatively valenced stimuli, versus anxious apprehension, characterized by engagement in worry to distract from negatively valenced stimuli. Results As predicted, the two anxiety types evidenced distinct patterns of attentional engagement. Anxious arousal was associated with immediate activation in attention-related brain regions that habituated over time, whereas anxious apprehension was associated with delayed activation in attention-related brain regions that occurred only after habituation in a worry-related brain region. Conclusions Results further elucidate mechanisms involved in attention to negatively valenced stimuli and indicate that anxiety is a heterogeneous construct with regard to attention to such stimuli.
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, Illinois ; University of California Berkeley, California.
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Spielberg
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, Illinois ; The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio.
authors.forename: Angeline A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: De Leon
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, Illinois.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bredemeier
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, Illinois.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Heller
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, Illinois ; Pennsylvania State University University Park, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Anna S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Engels
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, Illinois.
authors.forename: Stacie L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, Illinois.
authors.forename: Laura D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Crocker
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, Illinois.
authors.forename: Bradley P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Sutton
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, Illinois ; University of Delaware Newark, Delaware ; University of Konstanz Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Gregory A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Miller
keywords: Anxiety; anxious apprehension; anxious arousal; attention; fMRI; habituation; negative valence