Attention Bias Modification Training (ABM) in non-Clinical anxious populations: an eye-tracking study

Abstract

Abstract Anxiety has been consistently associated with attentional biases towards threatening stimuli in previous studies, primarily assessed through differences in motor reaction time and eye-fixation patterns between threat and neutral cues. Attention Bias Modification Training (ABM) has demonstrated potential as a therapeutic method for anxiety disorders by reducing the tendency to focus on threatening stimuli, thereby offering a possible treatment avenue. However, limited research has investigated its effectiveness specifically in non-clinical anxious individuals. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of combined ABM training (threat avoidance and visual search training) in alleviating threat bias and symptoms of anxiety. 99 non-clinical anxious young adults were randomly assigned to one of three ABM training conditions. In the ABM condition participants employed top-down cognitive control and implicit bottom-up learning toward happy stimuli. In the control ABM (cABM) participants employed similar strategies as the treatment group, but their focus was directed towards a non-emotional target. In the no training waitlist control group (NT) participants did not receive any training. Clinical and attention bias measures were assessed before and after ABM training. Young adults with high anxiety levels displayed a greater attention bias toward sad faces and threatening pictures than lower anxiety individuals. Furthermore, participants who were randomly assigned to ABM condition exhibited a notable increase in attention bias towards emotionally stimuli and especially happy faces and positive pictures after the training, as compared to participants who were assigned to cABM and NT conditions. Nevertheless, ABM group did not result in significant reductions in anxiety levels. Consistent with findings from earlier, reaction-time studies, the current study shows that training anxious adults to focus attention on positive features of their environment may be a promising treatment.