title: Behavioral and neural stability of attention bias to threat in healthy adolescents.
abstract: Considerable translational research on anxiety examines attention bias to threat and the efficacy of attention training in reducing symptoms. Imaging research on the stability of brain functions engaged by attention bias tasks could inform such research. Perturbed fronto-amygdala function consistently arises in attention bias research on adolescent anxiety. The current report examines the stability of the activation and functional connectivity of these regions on the dot-probe task. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation and connectivity data were acquired with the dot-probe task in 39 healthy youth (f=18, Mean Age=13.71years, SD=2.31) at two time points, separated by approximately nine weeks. Intraclass-correlations demonstrate good reliability in both neural activation for the ventrolateral PFC and task-specific connectivity for fronto-amygdala circuitry. Behavioral measures showed generally poor test-retest reliability. These findings suggest potential avenues for future brain imaging work by highlighting brain circuitry manifesting stable functioning on the dot-probe attention bias task.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Mental Health, United States. Electronic address: Lauren.white@nih.gov.
authors.forename: Lauren K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: University of Miami, United States. Electronic address: j.britton@miami.edu.
authors.forename: Jennifer C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Britton
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Mental Health, United States. Electronic address: stefanie.sequeira@nih.gov.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sequeira
authors.affiliation: Georgia State University, United States. Electronic address: emily.ronkin@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Emily G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Ronkin
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Health, United States. Electronic address: gangchen@mail.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Tel-Aviv University, Israel. Electronic address: yair1@post.tau.ac.il.
authors.forename: Yair
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bar-Haim
authors.affiliation: University of Haifa, Israel. Electronic address: tshechner@psy.haifa.ac.il.
authors.forename: Tomer
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shechner
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Mental Health, United States. Electronic address: ernstm@mail.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland, United States. Electronic address: Fox@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Nathan A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Mental Health, United States. Electronic address: leibs@mail.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leibenluft
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Mental Health, United States. Electronic address: pined@mail.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Pine
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001288:Attention; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Anxiety; Attention bias; Fronto-amygdala connectivity; Reliability; fMRI; vlPFC