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Attention bias to threat-related stimuli in mood-induced healthy individuals: The role of resilience and traumatic experiences in eye-movement responses
Date Issued
2025
Conference
Citation
Li, W. O., Tang, S. K., Chow, T. S., Lam, Y. H., Lee, L. F. (17-20 Jun 2025). Attention bias to threat-related stimuli in mood-induced healthy individuals: The role of resilience and traumatic experiences in eye-movement responses. APCV/EPC 2025, Sydney, Australia.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
This study explored whether healthy individuals under anxious induction exhibit similar
attention bias to threat-related stimuli similar to PTSD individuals and examined its relation to resilience and traumatic experiences. 143 adults (mean age = 23 [6.9]) completed questionnaires on individual resilience (CD-RISC), family resilience (FRS6), and traumatic experiences. Two mood inductions, anxious and calm, were administered in counterbalanced order. Participants viewed pairs of stimuli from the IAPS, with one neutral control stimulus. The target stimuli were categorized as High-Threat, Mild-Threat, and Positive. Eye-movement data were recorded. Anxious-to-calm ratios of these measurements in the two induction conditions were computed, where a ratio larger than one suggests a bias to the target stimuli. One-way ANOVAs revealed significant effects in dwell time (F(2,284)=3.42, p=.03) and number of fixations (F(2,284)=3.79, p=.02), indicating participants' attention under anxious induction was biased toward mild-threat targets than to other categories.
ANCOVA analyses, including resilience and traumatic experiences, nullified the main effects of categories, while individual (F(1,141)=7.21, p<.01) and family resilience (F(1,141)=3.94, p<.05) emerged as significant covariates for the number of fixations. The results show that anxious induction prompts healthy participants to attend to mild-threat stimuli, with resilience and traumatic experiences influencing this bias.
Availability at HKSYU Library
