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The effect of attention bias modification on the recognition of dynamic-angry faces in individuals with high social anxiety: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

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Abstract

Attention bias modification (ABM) is an intervention technique that reduces attention bias towards negative stimuli and improves anxiety symptoms. We examined the effect of attention bias modification towards dynamic-angry faces on various indices potentially related to social anxiety. Forty-eight participants with high social anxiety (HSA) were randomly divided into the attention modification program (AMP, n = 24) and attention control condition (ACC, n = 24). They were assessed by behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) methods in pre- and post-test. For results, ABM reduced social anxiety symptoms, changed the mean amplitudes of P100. Besides, we observed a significant correlation between the behavioral and ERP training effect. In sum, this study could provide evidence of the ABM effect of dynamic-angry face processing in HSA individuals.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a research foundation grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31900760).

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  1. Guangming Ran and Rui Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Institute of Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637002, China

    Guangming Ran & Rui Li

  2. College of Preschool and Primary Education, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637002, China

    Qi Zhang

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Contributions

Conceptualization/Methodology: RL GR QZ. Investigation: RL QZ. Data curation/Formal analysis/Visualization: RL GR. Funding acquisition/Project administration/Resources/Software: GR. Supervision/Validation:GR QZ. Writing—original draft: RL. Writing—review & editing: GR RL.

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Correspondence to Guangming Ran or Rui Li.

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All authors declared that they had no conflict of interest. This study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki. In addition, all participates was voluntary and confidential, and the anonymous character of their answers.

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Appendix A. The number of CUDAFD used in the experiment

Appendix A. The number of CUDAFD used in the experiment

Angry-woman faces: 1FA1, 1FA2, 1FA3, 1FA4, 1FA6, 1FA9, 1FA14, 1FA17, 1FA18, 1FA19, 1FA21, 1FA22, 1FA24, 1FA25, 1FA26, 1FA27, 1FA31, 1FA38, 1FA39, 1FA43.

Angry-man faces: 1MA1, 1MA3, 1MA4, 1MA6, 1MA7, 1MA11, 1MA17, 1MA19, 1MA20, 1MA22, 1MA23, 1MA26, 1MA29, 1MA30, 1MA36, 1MA37, 1MA39, 1MA42, 1MA47, 1MA48.

Neutral-woman faces: 1FN4, 1FN26, 1FN28, 1FN29, 1FN31, 1FN35, 1FN38, 1FN41, 1FN43, 1FN44, 1FN49, 1FN50, 1FN52, 1FN55, 1FN56, 1FN57, 1FN58, 1FN60, 1FN64, 1FN65.

Neutral-man faces: 1MN5, 1MN13, 1MN15, 1MN17, 1MN19, 1MN26, 1MN30, 1MN31, 1MN34, 1MN35, 1MN37, 1MN40, 1MN42, 1MN43, 1MN48, 1MN49, 1MN51, 1MN54, 1MN56, 1MN57.

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Ran, G., Li, R. & Zhang, Q. The effect of attention bias modification on the recognition of dynamic-angry faces in individuals with high social anxiety: Evidence from event-related brain potentials. Curr Psychol 42, 22081–22092 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03303-8

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