Vigilance: A novel conditioned fear response that resists extinction

Attentional bias for threat is an adaptive feature of human psychology, but may become maladaptive in anxiety-related disorders, causing distress, distraction, and distorted perception of danger. Reaction time measures have revealed automatic, covert attention biases to threat, whereas eye tracking...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biological psychology 2022-10, Vol.174, p.108401-108401, Article 108401
Main Authors: Armstrong, Thomas, Engel, Mira, Dalmaijer, Edwin S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attentional bias
Eye tracking
Fear conditioning
Gaze
Learning
Threat
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Summary:Attentional bias for threat is an adaptive feature of human psychology, but may become maladaptive in anxiety-related disorders, causing distress, distraction, and distorted perception of danger. Reaction time measures have revealed automatic, covert attention biases to threat, whereas eye tracking has revealed voluntary biases over a larger timescale, with monitoring or avoidance depending on context. Recently, attentional bias for threat has been studied as a conditioned fear response, providing new insight into how attentional biases are acquired and inhibited through learning experiences. However, very few studies have examined voluntary gaze biases during fear learning. In a novel eye tracking paradigm (N = 78), we examine the overt components of attentional bias to threat and safety cues. We found that threat cues, but not safety cues, elicited an initial orienting bias, as well as sustained monitoring bias across 10-second trials. This collective “vigilance” response to threat cues was insensitive to extinction, whereas condition fear responding revealed by pupil size and self-report ratings showed marked extinction. Vigilance may be less prone to extinction, compared to autonomic arousal, because eye movements require less energy than preparing the body for defensive behavior. Implications for understanding vigilance in PTSD are considered. •We examine attentional bias as a conditioned fear response using eye tracking.•We found automatic and voluntary gaze bias for threat cue, but not safety cue.•Gaze bias for threat cue was insensitive to extinction, in contrast to pupil size, self-reported affect.•Findings suggest that exposure-based therapy may not resolve vigilance for threat.
ISSN:0301-0511
1873-6246
DOI:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108401