Brain dynamics of visual attention during anticipation and encoding of threat- and safe-cues in spider-phobic individuals.

ABSTRACT: This study systematically investigated the sensitivity of the phobic attention system by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) in spider-phobic and non-phobic volunteers in a context where spider and neutral pictures were presented (phobic threat condition) and in contexts where no phobic but unpleasant and neutral or only neutral pictures were displayed (phobia-irrelevant conditions). In a between-group study, participants were assigned to phobia-irrelevant conditions either before or after the exposure to spider pictures (pre-exposure vs post-exposure participants). Additionally, each picture was preceded by a fixation cross presented in one of three different colors that were informative about the category of an upcoming picture. In the phobic threat condition, spider-phobic partici

SUBMITTER: Michalowski JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4560937 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature