Context

Cognitive theories of anxiety- and fear-related pathology suggest that individuals with these forms of pathology (versus those without) exhibit greater threat-related attentional bias (AB). However, there are a multitude of mixed and null findings in this area of research. Unlike other commonly used measures of AB, eye-tracking indices of AB exhibit acceptable reliability, and thus, may help clarify the relationship between AB and anxiety- and fear-related symptoms.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis, to determine whether there is evidence of a relationship between anxiety and fear-related symptoms and expressions of threat-related AB (i.e., reflexive orienting and maintenance) measured via free-viewing eye- tracking tasks.

Data synthesis

A total of 40 articles were retained for this meta-analysis. Significant relations were observed between anxiety and fear-related symptoms and both reflexive orienting toward threat (r = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.22) and maintenance of attention on threat (r = 0.15, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.25).

Conclusions

Results from the present study suggests that it may be important to develop attention bias modification interventions that target AB at both early (bottom-up) and later (top-down) stages of information processing to reduce anxiety- and fear-related pathology.

中文翻译：

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焦虑和恐惧相关障碍中威胁相关注意偏向的眼动追踪证据：系统评价和荟萃分析

语境

焦虑和恐惧相关病理的认知理论表明，患有这些病理形式的个体（与没有这些病理形式的个体相比）表现出更大的与威胁相关的注意力偏差 (AB)。然而，在这个研究领域有许多混合的和无效的发现。与其他常用的 AB 测量不同，AB 的眼动追踪指数表现出可接受的可靠性，因此可能有助于阐明 AB 与焦虑和恐惧相关症状之间的关系。

客观的

本研究的目的是进行荟萃分析，以确定是否有证据表明焦虑和恐惧相关症状与威胁相关 AB 的表达（即反射定向和维持）之间存在关系，通过自由观察眼测量- 跟踪任务。

数据综合

本次荟萃分析共保留了 40 篇文章。在焦虑和恐惧相关症状之间观察到显着相关性，以及对威胁的反射性定向（r  = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.22）和对威胁的关注（r  = 0.15, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.25）。

结论

本研究的结果表明，在信息处理的早期（自下而上）和后期（自上而下）阶段开发针对 AB 的注意力偏差修正干预措施可能很重要，以减少与焦虑和恐惧相关的病理。