Attention bias toward threatening faces in women with PTSD: eye tracking correlates by symptom cluster

• Published in: European journal of psychotraumatology 2019-01, Vol.10 (1), p.1568133-1568133
• Main Authors: Powers, Abigail, Fani, Negar, Murphy, Lauren, Briscione, Maria, Bradley, Bekh, Tone, Erin B., Norrholm, Seth D., Jovanovic, Tanja
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attention bias; Basic; Bias; Eye movements; eye tracking; población urbana; Post traumatic stress disorder; PTSD; seguimiento ocular; Sesgo atencional; TEPT; trauma; urban population; 创伤; 城市人口; 注意偏差; 眼动追踪
• ISSN: 2000-8066; 2000-8198; 2000-8066
• DOI: 10.1080/20008198.2019.1568133

Maladaptive patterns of attention to emotional stimuli are a common feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with growing evidence supporting sustained attention to threatening stimuli across trauma samples. However, it remains unclear how different PTSD symptom clusters are associated with attentional bias patterns, particularly in urban civilian settings with high rates of trauma exposure and PTSD. The present study examined associations among these variables in 70 traumatized primarily African American women. PTSD was measured using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale, and eye tracking was used to measure patterns of attention as participants engaged in an attention bias (dot probe) task to emotional faces; average initial fixation (1 s) and dwell duration (overall time spent looking at emotional face versus neutral face across the 5 s task) were used to assess attention bias patterns toward emotional faces. Women with PTSD showed significantly longer dwell duration toward angry faces than women without PTSD (F = 5.16, p