title: Does neurocognitive function affect cognitive bias toward an emotional stimulus? Association between general attentional ability and attentional bias toward threat.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although poorer cognitive performance has been found to be associated with anxiety, it remains unclear whether neurocognitive function affects biased cognitive processing toward emotional information. We investigated whether general cognitive function evaluated with a standard neuropsychological test predicts biased cognition, focusing on attentional bias toward threat.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and five healthy young adults completed a dot-probe task measuring attentional bias and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) measuring general cognitive function, which consists of five domains: immediate memory, visuospatial/constructional, language, attention, and delayed memory. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between attentional bias and cognitive function.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The attentional domain was the best predictor of attentional bias toward threat (β = -0.26, p = 0.006). Within the attentional domain, digit symbol coding was negatively correlated with attentional bias (r = -0.28, p = 0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study provides the first evidence that general attentional ability, which was assessed with a standard neuropsychological test, affects attentional bias toward threatening information. Individual cognitive profiles might be important for the measurement and modification of cognitive biases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan ; Department of Health Sciences, Kitasato University School of Allied Health Sciences Kanagawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hakamata
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toyama Toyama, Japan.
authors.forename: Mie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsui
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, Kitasato University School of Allied Health Sciences Kanagawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Hirokuni
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tagaya
keywords: attention; attentional bias; cognitive bias; emotion; neurocognitive function