3-035 - Rising From the Ashes? Paradigm Shifts in the Study of Attention Biases in Adolescent Anxiety

Session Type: Exchange Symposium

Integrative Statement

Despite an explosion of interest in the threat-related attention bias (AB), or selective and exaggerated attention towards threat, as a causal mechanism in anxiety, initial enthusiasm for the construct of AB has flagged under the weight of null studies and the detection of AB heterogeneity, including bias away from threat. Has the construct of AB lost its clinical relevance? This Exchange Symposium directly tackles this question, with an emphasis on methodological and theoretical paradigm shifts in the study of AB, including new neuroscience-based measurement approaches and innovative behavioral analytic techniques, which might rescue AB from the looming ash heap of scientific history. Presenters focus on adolescence given that it is a developmental period of peak anxiety onset and rapid neurodevelopment that likely drives the onset and expression of anxiety symptoms. The first presenter describes new methods for analyzing dynamic variability in behavioral measures of AB that show stronger predictive power than traditional AB metrics. The next talk discusses the use of scalp-recorded event-related potential measures to delineate how distinct components of AB differentially predict anxiety symptoms. The final presenter describes a study using EEG delta-beta coupling, an index of cortical coherence and regulatory capacity, in which the magnitude of delta-beta coupling is associated with AB heterogeneity, including AB away from threat, as well as reduced anxiety severity. Co-Chairs will moderate an open discussion emphasizing how new methods inform our understanding of anxiety risk and resilience, clarify neural mechanisms underlying AB and adolescent anxiety, and inform emerging treatment approaches that target AB.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chairs

• Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, Hunter College, The City University of New York

• Amy Krain Roy, Fordham University

Individual Presentations

• Novel Behavioral Metrics of Attention Bias in Anxious Adolescents - Presenting Author: Mariah Lillian DeSerisy, Fordham University; Non-Presenting Author: Amy Krain Roy, Fordham University

• Event-Related Potentials as Predictive Indexes of the Anxiety-Related Attention Bias in Adolescents - Presenting Author: Samantha Denefrio, The Graduate Center, City University of New York; Non-Presenting Author: Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, Hunter College, The City University of New York

• Delta-Beta Coupling and the Anxiety-Related Attention Bias in Anxious Youth - Presenting Author: Sarah Myruski, NYU Lagone Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, Hunter College, The City University of New York