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Effects of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Attentional Intervention on Threat-Related Perceptual Decision-Making

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Abstract

Objectives

Threat-related cues and contexts facilitate perceptual decision-making, yet it is unclear whether this threat-driven tuning of perceptual decision-making is modifiable by top-down attentional control. Since state and dispositional mindfulness are linked to improved attentional control, we examined whether these factors assist the use of prior knowledge to detect threatening stimuli.

Methods

Participants were randomly assigned to a brief mindfulness-based intervention (N = 32) or a physics lecture audio recording (N = 31) and then asked to perform a task in which they used threatening and neutral cues to discriminate between threatening and neutral faces.

Results

Results showed that threatening cues led to faster and more sensitive perceptual decision-making, specifically for threatening faces. Furthermore, higher levels of dispositional mindfulness were associated with improved ability to use cues to discriminate between threatening and neutral stimuli in the group that underwent a brief mindfulness induction but not in the control group.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight how top-down attention-related dispositions and strategies can influence our ability to detect threats in our environment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the research assistance team and the National Institute of Health.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health grant R21MH111999-01A1.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

SI designed the study, analyzed the data, and collaborated in the writing of the paper. MAM collaborated in the writing of the paper and figure/table creation. GI collected data and collaborated in editing of the final manuscript. TJS designed the threshold and cued discrimination task and collaborated in the editing of the final manuscript. AM collaborated in the writing of the paper and the editing of the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aprajita Mohanty.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

All human and animal studies have been approved by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. Stony Brook University provided IRB approval for this study.

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Im, S., Marder, M.A., Imbriano, G. et al. Effects of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Attentional Intervention on Threat-Related Perceptual Decision-Making. Mindfulness 12, 959–969 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01562-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01562-9

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