2-130 - Children’s Attention Bias Modification Training: Generalizability, Efficacy, and Mechanisms

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Recent experimental and clinical paradigms designed to alter attentional processes have shown promise in reducing psychopathology including anxiety, depression, and aggression in youth populations. However, meta-analyses regarding the effect of attention bias modification training (ABMT) have been inconclusive. Moving forward, it will be important for researchers to examine specific components of ABMT to understand the efficacy and neural mechanisms of this intervention across development.

This symposium presents three papers that explore the implementation, efficacy, and, neural correlates of ABMT on psychopathology in youth. The first paper examines the efficacy and generalizability of an ABMT task in adolescents. Initial findings indicate that ABMT can improve accuracy in identifying ambiguous facial emotion, generalizes to other identities and emotions, and shows lasting effects following multiple days of training. Paper Two examines the impact of ABMT training in ameliorating anxiety in pre-pubertal children and investigates the role of candidate brain regions as moderators of this relation. This experiment reveals that fronto-temporal ROI volumes mediated the association of ABMT with pre- and post-ABMT levels of anxiety. Paper Three uses fMRI and clinician ratings to test whether ABMT augments Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in anxious children and adolescents. Results indicate that specific fMRI activation predicts treatment response and shows active ABMT + CBT is associated with better treatment response. These papers elucidate the importance of novel interventions such as ABMT in at-risk, youth populations to target key neural mechanisms responsible for the onset and maintenance of psychopathology across development.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chairs

• Nathan Fox, 3. Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland

• Seth Pollak, University of Wisconsin

Individual Presentations

• Attention Bias Modification Training: Efficacy and Generalizability - Presenting Author: Brian Leitzke, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Rista Plate, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Seth Pollak, University of Wisconsin

• Brain Volumes Associations with Attention Bias Modification Treatment Effects on Anxiety Symptoms: A Moderated-Mediation Model - Presenting Author: Eran Auday, The Pennsylvania State University; Bradley Taber-Thomas, Penn State University; Koraly Perez-Edgar, The Pennsylvania State University

• Neural Correlates Associated with Attention Bias Modification and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Anxious Youth - Presenting Author: Lauren White, National Institute of Mental Health; Stephanie Sequeira, National Institute of Mental Health; Jennifer Britton, University of Miami; Melissa Brotman, National Institute of Mental Health; Andrea Gold, NIMH; Erin Berman, National Institute of Mental Health; Kenneth Towbin, National Institute of Mental Health; Rany Abend, Tel Aviv University, Psychology; Nathan Fox, 3. Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland; Yair Bar-Haim, Tel Aviv University, Psychology; Ellen Leibenluft, Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health; Daniel Pine, 1. Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, NIMH