TY - JOUR
T1 - The role of attentional biases in PTSD
T2 - Is it interference or facilitation?
AU - Pineles, Suzanne L.
AU - Shipherd, Jillian C.
AU - Welch, Lisa P.
AU - Yovel, Iftah
PY - 2007/8
Y1 - 2007/8
N2 - Although attentional biases have been demonstrated in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the cognitive methodologies used have not allowed for disambiguation of two types of attentional biases. It remains unclear if PTSD involves difficulty disengaging attention from threatening stimuli (interference) or facilitated detection. To differentiate between attentional interference and facilitation, 57 male Vietnam-era veterans (30 High PTSD and 27 Low PTSD) completed a visual search task with a lexical decision component. High PTSD veterans who engaged in the interference task first showed increased interference to threat-relevant words relative to Low PTSD veterans. However, no evidence was found for facilitated detection of threatening stimuli in PTSD.
AB - Although attentional biases have been demonstrated in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the cognitive methodologies used have not allowed for disambiguation of two types of attentional biases. It remains unclear if PTSD involves difficulty disengaging attention from threatening stimuli (interference) or facilitated detection. To differentiate between attentional interference and facilitation, 57 male Vietnam-era veterans (30 High PTSD and 27 Low PTSD) completed a visual search task with a lexical decision component. High PTSD veterans who engaged in the interference task first showed increased interference to threat-relevant words relative to Low PTSD veterans. However, no evidence was found for facilitated detection of threatening stimuli in PTSD.
KW - Attentional bias
KW - Attentional facilitation
KW - Attentional interference
KW - Posttraumatic stress disorder
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34250027578&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.brat.2006.08.021
DO - 10.1016/j.brat.2006.08.021
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C2 - 17049337
AN - SCOPUS:34250027578
SN - 0005-7967
VL - 45
SP - 1903
EP - 1913
JO - Behaviour Research and Therapy
JF - Behaviour Research and Therapy
IS - 8
ER -
