ABSTRACT

Attentional control theory suggests that high cognitive demands impair the flexible deployment of attention control in anxious adults, particularly when paired with external threats. Extending this work to pediatric anxiety, we report two studies utilising eye tracking (Study 1) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (Study 2). Both studies use a visual search paradigm to examine anxiety-related differences in the impact of threat on attentional control at varying levels of task difficulty. In Study 1, youth ages 8–18 years (N = 109), completed the paradigm during eye tracking. Results indicated that youth with more severe anxiety took longer to fixate on and identify the target, specifically on difficult trials, compared to youth with less anxiety. However, no anxiety-related effects of emotional distraction (faces) emerged. In Study 2, a separate cohort of 8–18-year-olds (N = 72) completed a similar paradigm during fMRI. Behaviourally, youth with more severe anxiety were slower to respond on searches following non-threatening, compared to threatening, distractors, but this effect did not vary by task difficulty. The same interaction emerged in the neuroimaging analysis in the superior parietal lobule and precentral gyrus-more severe anxiety was associated with greater brain response following non-threatening distractors. Theoretical implications of these inconsistent findings are discussed.

摘要

注意控制理论表明，高认知需求会损害焦虑成人注意力控制的灵活部署，尤其是在与外部威胁配对时。将这项工作扩展到儿科焦虑症，我们报告了两项利用眼动追踪（研究 1）和功能磁共振成像（研究 2）的研究。两项研究都使用视觉搜索范式来检查威胁对不同任务难度级别的注意力控制影响的焦虑相关差异。在研究 1 中，8-18 岁的青年（N = 109），在眼动追踪期间完成了范式。结果表明，与焦虑程度较低的年轻人相比，焦虑程度较重的年轻人需要更长的时间来注视和确定目标，特别是在困难的试验中。然而，情绪分心（面孔）没有出现与焦虑相关的影响。在研究 2 中，一个单独的 8-18 岁人群（N = 72) 在 fMRI 期间完成了类似的范例。在行为上，与威胁性干扰物相比，具有更严重焦虑的青少年对非威胁性搜索的反应较慢，但这种影响并没有因任务难度而异。在顶上小叶和中央前回的神经影像学分析中也出现了同样的相互作用——更严重的焦虑与在非威胁性干扰物后更大的大脑反应相关。讨论了这些不一致的发现的理论意义。