Spatial Anticipatory Attentional Bias for Alcohol: A Preliminary Report on Reliability and Associations with Risky Drinking

Introduction Although risky drinking and alcohol dependence have been associated with spatial attentional biases, concerns have been raised about the reliability of the frequently-used dot-probe task. A form of anticipatory bias related to predictive cues has been found to be related to alcohol-related processes, and to have high reliability in the context of threat stimuli. It remains to be determined whether this anticipatory attentional bias also has good reliability for alcohol stimuli. Further, correlations with drinking-related individual differences need to be replicated. Material and Methods 83 healthy adult participants were included, who completed the task and questionnaires on risky drinking (AUDIT-C), drinking motives (DMQ-R), reasons to abstain from drinking (RALD), and alcohol craving (ACQ). The task used a 400 ms Cue-Stimulus Interval, based on previous work. The Spearman-Brown split-half reliability of reaction time-based bias scores was calculated. The within-subject effect of probe location (predicted-alcohol versus predicted-non-alcohol) was tested using a paired-sample t-test. Correlations were calculated between bias scores and questionnaire scales; tests were one-sided for predicted effects and two-sided for exploratory effects. Results The reliability was .81 (.74 after outlier removal). There was no overall bias. A predicted correlation between risky drinking and anticipatory bias towards alcohol was found, but no other predicted or exploratory effects. Discussion The anticipatory attentional bias for alcohol is a reliably measurable individual difference, with some evidence that it is associated with risky drinking. Conclusions Implicit behavioural measures of spatial attentional bias can in principle achieve high reliability. Further study of attentional biases using predictive cues would appear to be promising

Freeze or Forget? Virtual Attack Effects in an Emotional Sternberg Task

Emotionally salient stimuli have the ability to disrupt cognitive processing. This kind of disruption involves effects on working memory and may be related to mental health problems. To explore the nature of such emotional interference on working memory, a Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task (VAEST) was used. Neutral faces were presented as distractors and warning signals, which were sometimes followed by a virtual attack, created by having the neutral face turn angry while the image was enlarged. The attack was hypothesized to have one of two effects: to disrupt cognitive processing and thereby increase interference effects, or to terminate a state of freezing and thereby reduce interference effects. The task was successfully completed online by a sample of 59 students. Results clearly show that the virtual attack caused a reduction of interference relative to no-attack trials. The apparent cognitive disruption caused by emotional distractors may thus reflect freezing, which can be reversed by a freeze-terminating stimulus

Trial-to-trial Carryover Effects on Spatial Attentional Bias

Visual Probe Tasks (VPTs) have been extensively used to measure spatial attentional biases, but as usually analysed, VPTs do not consider trial-to-trial carryover effects of probe location: Does responding to a probe on, e.g., the location of a threat cue affect the bias on the subsequent trial? The aim of the current study was to confirm whether this kind of carryover exists, using a novel task version, the diagonalized VPT, designed to focus on such trial-to-trial interactions. Two versions of the task were performed by a sample of college students. In one version cues were coloured squares; in the other, cues were threat-related and neutral images. Both versions included partially random positive or negative response feedback and varying Cue-Probe Intervals (200 or 600 ms). Carryover effects were found in both versions. Responding to a probe at the location of a cue of a given colour induced an attentional bias on the subsequent trial in the direction of that colour. Responding to a threat-related cue induced an attentional bias towards threat on the subsequent trial. The results provide evidence that trial-to-trial carryover effects on spatial attentional bias indeed exist. A methodological implication is that previous probe location could be considered in analyses or re-analyses of spatial visual attention tasks

An implementation of N-way repeated measures ANOVA: effect coding, automated unpacking of interactions, and randomization testing

The paper presents the details of an implementation of repeated measures ANOVA, consisting of a set of functions to organize data and represent contrasts to be tested and run statistical tests. The implementation is focused on uses common in experimental psychology. An arbitrary number of within-subject factors, each with an arbitrary number of levels, can be used. A non-parametric, randomization- and permutation-based formulation of repeated measures ANOVA was defined and implemented. Methods for testing interactions with categorical and continuous between-subject variables are implemented. Post-hoc tests for exploring interactions are automated. Simulations indicate correct control of false positive rate for all types of test. The software provides output with statistics including p-values and partial eta squared

Effects of Threat and Sleep Deprivation on Action Tendencies and Response Inhibition

The ability to control action is crucial for adaptive responding, but may be compromised in situations involving strong emotions (e.g., threat) or when people are deprived of resources (e.g., sleep). As compromised action control can have large consequences in threatening situations, for example when police officers face a potentially armed suspect, we experimentally investigated how acute threat and partial sleep deprivation affect the ability to control impulsive responses, in 52 healthy young adults performing a simulated shooting task. The results showed that acute threat increased the tendency to act quickly (i.e., reduced response times; Coef = 9.46, 95% CI [3.49, 15.29], p = .001) and impaired response inhibition (i.e., increased stop signal reaction times; Coef = -4.91, 95% CI [-9.47, -0.44], p = .035). In addition, three nights of partial sleep deprivation (five hours [n = 28] vs. eight hours [n = 24] of sleep), led to a significant decrease in overall response accuracy (Coef = -0.22, 95% CI [- 0.40, -0.05], p = .025). Contrary to expectations, our results did not show increased threat sensitivity in sleep-deprived individuals (all p > .13). Nevertheless, they may have important implications for professionals who are required to maintain behavioral control under high levels of threat and who experience disturbed sleep due to e.g. shift work, as both factors negatively affected performanc

Alcohol-related attentional bias variability and conflicting automatic associations

Attentional bias variability is related to alcohol abuse. Of potential use for studying variability is the anticipatory attentional bias: Bias due to the locations of predictively-cued rather than already-presented stimuli. The hypothesis was tested that conflicting automatic associations are related to attentional bias variability. Further, relationships were explored between anticipatory biases and individual differences related to alcohol use. 74 social drinkers performed a cued Visual Probe Task and univalent Single-Target Implicit Associations Tasks. Questionnaires were completed on risky drinking, craving, and motivations to drink or refrain from drinking. Ambiguity was related to attentional bias variability at the 800 ms Cue-Stimulus Interval. Further, a bias related to craving and risky drinking was found at the 400 ms Cue-Stimulus Interval. Thus, the selection of attentional responses was biased by predicted locations of expected salient stimuli. The results support a role of conflicting associations in attentional bias variability

A Clinical Trial with Combined Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Attentional Bias Modification in Alcohol Dependent Patients

Modifying attentional processes with attentional bias modification (ABM) might be a relevant add-on to treatment in addiction. This study investigated whether influencing cortical plasticity with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could increase training effects. tDCS could also help alcohol-dependent patients to overcome craving and reduce relapse, independent of training. These approaches were combined to investigate effects in the treatment of alcoholism. Ninety-eight patients (analytical sample = 83) were randomly assigned to 4 groups in a 2-by-2 factorial design. Patients received 4 sessions of ABM (control or real training) combined with 2 mA tDCS (active: 20 minutes or sham: 30 seconds) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Alcohol bias and craving were assessed, and treatment outcome was measured as relapse after 1 year. Attentional bias scores indicated that during the training only the group with active tDCS and real ABM displayed an overall avoidance bias (p  0.2). However, effects on relapse after active tDCS were in the expected direction. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of tDCS or ABM or the combination. Whether the absence of effect was due to issues with the outcome measurements (e.g., lack of craving, high dropout, and unreliable measurements) or aspects of the intervention should be further investigated. [Abstract copyright: © 2018 The Authors Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Research Society on Alcoholism.

Resting-state functional connectivity in combat veterans suffering from impulsive aggression

Impulsive aggression is common among military personnel after deployment and may arise because of impaired top-down regulation of the amygdala by prefrontal regions.This study sought to further explore this hypothesis via resting-state functional connectivity analyses in impulsively aggressive combat veterans. Male combat veterans with (n¼28) and without (n¼30) impulsive aggression problems underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Functional connectivity analyses were conducted with the following seed-regions: basolateral amygdala (BLA), centromedial amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and anterior insular cortex (AIC). Regions-of-interest analyses focused on the orbitofrontal cortex and periaqueductal gray, and yielded no significant results. In exploratory cluster analyses, we observed reduced functional connectivity between the (bilateral) BLA and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the impulsive aggression group, relative to combat controls. This finding indicates that combat-related impulsive aggression may be marked by weakened functional connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal regions, already in the absence of explicit emotional stimuli. Group differences in functional connectivity were also observed between the (bilateral) ACC and left cuneus, which may be related to heightened vigilance to potentially threatening visual cues, as well as between the left AIC and right temporal pole, possibly related to negative memory association in impulsive aggression

Predictive Attentional Bias Modification Induces Stimulus-Evoked Attentional Bias for Threat

Attention Bias Modification (ABM) aims to modulate attentional biases, but questions remain about its efficacy and there may be new variants yet to explore. The current study tested effects of a novel version of ABM, predictive ABM (predABM), using visually neutral cues predicting the locations of future threatening and neutral stimuli that had a chance of appearing after a delay. Such effects could also help understand anticipatory attentional biases measured using cued Visual Probe Tasks. 102 participants completed the experiment online. We tested whether training Towards Threat versus Away from Threat contingencies on the predABM would cause subsequent attentional biases towards versus away from threat versus neutral stimuli, respectively. Participants were randomly assigned and compared on attentional bias measured via a post-training Dot-Probe task. A significant difference was found between the attentional bias in the Towards Threat versus Away from Threat group. The training contingencies induced effects on bias in the expected direction, although the bias in each group separately did not reach significance. Stronger effects may require multiple training sessions. Nevertheless, the primary test confirmed the hypothesis, showing that the predABM is a potentially interesting variant of ABM. Theoretically, the results show that automatization may involve the process of selecting the outcome of a cognitive response, rather than a simple stimulus-response association. Training based on contingencies involving predicted stimuli affect subsequent attentional measures and could be of interest in future clinical studies

Training Working Memory in Adolescents Using Serious Game Elements: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Working memory capacity has been found to be impaired in adolescents with various psychological problems, such as addictive behaviors. Training of working memory capacity can lead to significant behavioral improvements, but it is usually long and tedious, taxing participants' motivation to train. This study aimed to evaluate whether adding game elements to the training could help improve adolescents' motivation to train while improving cognition. A total of 84 high school students were allocated to a working memory capacity training, a gamified working memory capacity training, or a placebo condition. Working memory capacity, motivation to train, and drinking habits were assessed before and after training. Self-reported evaluations did not show a self-reported preference for the game, but participants in the gamified working memory capacity training condition did train significantly longer. The game successfully increased motivation to train, but this effect faded over time. Working memory capacity increased equally in all conditions but did not lead to significantly lower drinking, which may be due to low drinking levels at baseline. We recommend that future studies attempt to prolong this motivational effect, as it appeared to fade over time. [Abstract copyright: ©Wouter J Boendermaker, Thomas E Gladwin, Margot Peeters, Pier JM Prins, Reinout W Wiers. Originally published in JMIR Serious Games (http://games.jmir.org), 23.05.2018.