title: Enhanced visuomotor processing of phobic images in blood-injury-injection fear.
abstract: Numerous studies have identified attentional biases and processing enhancements for fear-relevant stimuli in individuals with specific phobias. However, this has not been conclusively shown in blood-injury-injection (BII) phobia, which has rarely been investigated even though it has features distinct from all other specific phobias. The present study aims to fill that gap and compares the time-course of visuomotor processing of phobic stimuli (i.e., pictures of small injuries) in BII-fearful (n=19) and non-anxious control participants (n=23) by using a response priming paradigm. In BII-fearful participants, phobic stimuli produced larger priming effects and lower response times compared to neutral stimuli, whereas non-anxious control participants showed no such differences. Because these effects are fully present in the fastest responses, they indicate an enhancement in early visuomotor processing of injury pictures in BII-fearful participants. These results are comparable to the enhanced processing of phobic stimuli in other specific phobias (i.e., spider phobia).
authors.affiliation: University of Kaiserslautern, School of Social Sciences, Experimental Psychology, Erwin-Schrödinger-Str., Building 57, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany. Electronic address: anke.haberkamp@staff.uni-marburg.de.
authors.forename: Anke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haberkamp
authors.affiliation: University of Kaiserslautern, School of Social Sciences, Experimental Psychology, Erwin-Schrödinger-Str., Building 57, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany. Electronic address: thomas.schmidt@sowi.uni-kl.de.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001769:Blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections / Q000523:psychology*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Blood-injury-injection phobia; Priming; Visuomotor processing