title: Frontal and parietal EEG asymmetries interact to predict attentional bias to threat.
abstract: Frontal and parietal electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetries mark vulnerability to depression and anxiety. Drawing on cognitive theories of vulnerability, we hypothesise that cortical asymmetries predict attention to threat. Participants completed a dot-probe task in which bilateral face displays were followed by lateralised targets at either short (300ms) or long (1050ms) SOA. We also measured N2pc to face onset as an index of early attentional capture. At long SOA only, frontal and parietal asymmetry interacted to predict attentional bias to angry faces. Those with leftward frontal asymmetry showed no attentional bias. Among those with rightward frontal asymmetry those with low right parietal activity showed vigilance for threat, and those with high right parietal activity showed avoidance. Asymmetry was not related to the N2pc or to attentional bias at the short SOA. Findings suggest that trait asymmetries reflect function in a fronto-parietal network that controls attention to threat.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. Electronic address: gina.grimshaw@vuw.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Gina M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Grimshaw
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. Electronic address: jfoster2@uoregon.edu.
authors.forename: Joshua J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand. Electronic address: p.corballis@auckland.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Corballis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention; Dot probe; EEG asymmetry; Emotion; Faces; N2pc; Threat