Background and objectives

Most eye tracking based paradigms evidence patterns of sustained attention on threat coupled with low evidence for vigilance to or avoidance of threat in posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Still, eye tracking data on attention bias is particularly limited for military population. This eye tracking study investigated attentional bias in PTSS in a sample of German Armed Forces veterans.

Methods

Veterans with deployment-related PTSS (N = 24), veterans with deployment-related traumatization without PTSS (N = 28), and never-deployed healthy veterans (N = 18) were presented with pairs of combat and neutral pictures, pairs of general threat and neutral pictures, and pairs of emotional and neutral faces. Their eye gazes were tracked during a free viewing task. 3 x 3 x 2 mixed general linear model analyses were conducted. Internal consistency of attention bias indicators was calculated for the entire sample and within groups.

Results

Veterans with PTSS dwelled longer on general threat AOIs in contrast to non-exposed controls and shorter on general threat and combat associated neutral AOIs in contrast to both control groups. Veterans with PTSS entered faster to general threat AOIs than non-exposed controls. Veterans with PTSS showed circumscribed higher attention fluctuation in contrast to controls. Internal consistency varied across attention bias indicators.

Limitations

Statistical power was reduced due to recruitment difficulties.

Conclusions

Evidence is provided for the maintenance hypothesis in PTSS. No robust evidence is provided for hypervigilant behavior in PTSS. Findings on attention bias variability remain unclear, calling for more investigations in this field.

中文翻译：

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有和没有创伤后应激症状的德国武装部队退伍军人的注意偏差——眼动追踪调查和组比较

背景和目标

大多数基于眼动追踪的范式都证明了对威胁的持续关注模式以及对创伤后应激症状 (PTSS) 中对威胁保持警惕或避免威胁的低证据。尽管如此，关于注意力偏差的眼动追踪数据对于军人来说尤其有限。这项眼动追踪研究调查了德国武装部队退伍军人样本中 PTSS 的注意力偏差。

方法

向有部署相关 PTSS 的退伍军人 ( N  = 24)、有部署相关创伤但没有 PTSS 的退伍军人 ( N  = 28) 和从未部署的健康退伍军人 ( N  = 18) 展示了成对的战斗和中立图片，成对的一般威胁和中性的图片，以及一对情绪化和中性的面孔。在免费观看任务期间跟踪他们的眼睛注视。进行了 3 x 3 x 2 混合一般线性模型分析。计算整个样本和组内注意偏差指标的内部一致性。

结果

与未暴露的控制组相比，患有 PTSS 的退伍军人在一般威胁 AOI 上停留的时间更长，与两个对照组相比，在一般威胁和战斗相关的中立 AOI 上停留的时间更短。患有 PTSS 的退伍军人比未暴露的对照组更快地进入一般威胁 AOI。与对照组相比，患有 PTSS 的退伍军人表现出更高的注意力波动。内部一致性因注意力偏差指标而异。

限制

由于招聘困难，统计能力降低。

结论

为 PTSS 中的维持假设提供了证据。没有有力的证据证明 PTSS 中的过度警觉行为。关于注意力偏差变异性的研究结果仍不清楚，需要在该领域进行更多调查。