Attention bias toward threat is associated with exaggerated fear expression and impaired extinction in PTSD

Fani, Negar; Tone, Erin B.; Phifer, Justine; Norrholm, Seth D.; Bradley, Bekh; Ressler, Kerry J.; Kamkwalala, Asante R.; Jovanović, Tanja

doi:10.1017/s0033291711001565

Psychol. Med.

2011

DOI: 10.1017/s0033291711001565

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Attention bias toward threat is associated with exaggerated fear expression and impaired extinction in PTSD

Negar Fani

¹

,

Erin B. Tone

²

,

Justine Phifer

³

et al.

Abstract: Background Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops in a minority of traumatized individuals. Attention biases to threat and abnormalities in fear learning and extinction are processes likely to play a critical role in the creation and/or maintenance of PTSD symptomatology. However, the relationship between these processes has not been established, particularly in highly traumatized populations; understanding their interaction can help inform neural network models and treatments for PTSD. Method Attent… Show more

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Cited by 256 publications

(208 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Contrary to our main hypothesis, participants in the race-related stress condition did not exhibit differential general attention bias to threat than participants in the nonracial stress control group. These results diverge from prior cross-sectional works on race-related stress and attention bias to threat (Fani et al, 2012; Mekawi et al, 2022). Additionally, these results counter a prior experimental study that found exposure to ambiguous racial stimuli, over explicitly racist and nonracist stimuli, decreased Black individuals’ cognitive performance on the Stroop task—an executive function task measuring cognitive inhibition and commonly used as a proxy for attentional bias (Salvatore & Shelton, 2007).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Does exposure to race-related stress lead to attention biases? Examining the moderating roles of anxiety and racial identity among Black adults.

Mekawi

¹

,

Hall

²

,

Powers

³

et al. 2025

Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology

0

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Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

show abstract

“…Contrary to our main hypothesis, participants in the race-related stress condition did not exhibit differential general attention bias to threat than participants in the nonracial stress control group. These results diverge from prior cross-sectional works on race-related stress and attention bias to threat (Fani et al, 2012; Mekawi et al, 2022). Additionally, these results counter a prior experimental study that found exposure to ambiguous racial stimuli, over explicitly racist and nonracist stimuli, decreased Black individuals’ cognitive performance on the Stroop task—an executive function task measuring cognitive inhibition and commonly used as a proxy for attentional bias (Salvatore & Shelton, 2007).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Does exposure to race-related stress lead to attention biases? Examining the moderating roles of anxiety and racial identity among Black adults.

Mekawi

¹

,

Hall

²

,

Powers

³

et al. 2025

Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology

0

Get access via publisher Add to dashboard Cite

Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

show abstract

“…This result is broadly in line with previous findings of attentional biases toward threat (Fani et al, 2012) and difficulties in regulating negative emotions (Shepherd and Wild, 2014) in PTSD. Pediatric maltreatment-related PTSD may be accompanied by higher utilization of ACC and ACC-involved brain networks to resolve emotional and cognitive conflicts.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Structural covariance network centrality in maltreated youth with posttraumatic stress disorder

Sun

¹

,

Peverill

²

,

Swanson

³

et al. 2018

Journal of Psychiatric Research

Get access via publisher Add to dashboard Cite

Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

show abstract

“…Pupil dilation may reflect increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system (Granholm & Steinhauer, ). These findings were consistent with prior work showing heightened arousal and increased physiological responsiveness among those with PTSD (Fani et al., ; Kimble et al., ). They contrast, however, with Felmingham et al.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Pupil Response to Threat in Trauma‐Exposed Individuals With or Without PTSD

Cascardi

¹

,

Armstrong

²

,

Chung

³

et al. 2015

Journal of Traumatic Stress

Get access via publisher Add to dashboard Cite

Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

show abstract

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