@article{ref1,
title="Attention allocation in posttraumatic stress disorder: an eye-tracking study",
journal="Psychological medicine",
year="2021",
author="Lazarov, Amit and Suarez-Jimenez, Benjamin and Zhu, Xi and Pine, Daniel S. and Bar-Haim, Yair and Neria, Yuval",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Eye-tracking-based attentional research implicates sustained attention to threat in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, most of this research employed small stimuli set-sizes, small samples that did not include both trauma-exposed healthy participants and non-trauma-exposed participants, and generally failed to report the reliability of used tasks and attention indices. Here, using an established eye-tracking paradigm, we explore attention processes to different negatively-valenced cues in PTSD while addressing these limitations. <br><br>METHODS: PTSD patients (n = 37), trauma-exposed healthy controls (TEHC; n = 34), and healthy controls (HC; n = 30) freely viewed three blocks of 30 different matrices of faces, each presented for 6 s. Each block consisted of matrices depicting eight negatively-valenced faces (anger, fear, or sadness) and eight neutral faces. Gaze patterns on negative and neural areas of interest were compared. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were evaluated for the entire sample and within groups. <br><br>RESULTS: The two trauma-exposed groups dwelled longer on negatively-valenced faces over neutral faces, while HC participants showed the opposite pattern. This attentional bias was more prominent in the PTSD than the TEHC group. Similar results emerged for first-fixation dwell time, but with no differences between the two trauma-exposed groups. No group differences emerged for first-fixation latency or location. Internal consistency and 1-week test-retest reliability were adequate, across and within groups. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Sustained attention on negatively-valenced stimuli emerges as a potential target for therapeutic intervention in PTSD designed to divert attention away from negatively-valenced stimuli and toward neutral ones.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0033-2917",
doi="10.1017/S0033291721000581",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291721000581"
}