Itch is an unpleasant somatic sensation which acts as a danger signal for threatening stimuli on the skin. Attentional bias is the tendency to prioritize the processing of specific types of stimuli...Show moreItch is an unpleasant somatic sensation which acts as a danger signal for threatening stimuli on the skin. Attentional bias is the tendency to prioritize the processing of specific types of stimuli over others. The mind prioritizes threat-related stimuli over neutral stimuli, therefore an attentional bias towards itch is expected. Neuroticism is an individual characteristic that might influence attentional bias towards itch and could be defined as emotional instability, resulting in the tendency to ruminate, experience negative emotions and fear. Previous studies found mixed results regarding both the presence of attentional bias towards itch, and the relation between neuroticism and attentional bias towards itch in healthy participants. Therefore, the first aim was to examine the presence of attentional bias towards itch in healthy individuals. The second aim was to identify the relationship between neuroticism and attentional bias towards itch in healthy individuals. The design of this study is a secondary analysis and used the data from seven earlier studies. The 577 included participants were all healthy individuals between 18 and 35 years old. In order to examine the presence of attentional bias towards itch, the dot-probe task with neutral vs. itch-related words and/or pictures was used. Furthermore, the neuroticism subscale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire revised short scale (EPQ-RSS) was used to measure neuroticism. A multilevel analysis showed no attentional bias towards itch-related stimuli in healthy participants, t(4.941)=-1.252, p=0.266. Furthermore, the effect of neuroticism scores was not significant, indicating that higher neuroticism scores were not associated with more attentional bias towards itch, t(382.636)=-0.825, p=0.410. The inclusion of healthy participants only, the low neuroticism scores and the absence of itch-related goals in the current study could be a reason for not finding an attentional bias towards itch and the relation with neuroticism. However, given the fact that this study is a secondary analysis with a large sample size, it also has to be considered that there simply is no attentional bias towards itch in healthy participants. This study could be used as a guideline for future research, in order to further investigate the relationship between neuroticism and attentional bias towards itch.Show less
Itch is an evolutionary mechanism that protects one from harm. It is an unpleasant sensation that often leads to scratching or rubbing. Some skin conditions have itching as a primary symptom....Show moreItch is an evolutionary mechanism that protects one from harm. It is an unpleasant sensation that often leads to scratching or rubbing. Some skin conditions have itching as a primary symptom. Moreover, it is an experience that is likely to draw attention. Therefore, attentional bias might be found in patients with a chronic itch condition. However, it has not been investigated whether experiencing a higher level of itch symptoms leads to a higher attentional bias towards itch. The aim of this research is to investigate whether patients with a chronic itch condition that experience more itch symptoms (at the current moment of testing) will have a higher attentional bias score as opposed to people with fewer itch symptoms. The subjects of this study were 5 patients with a chronic itch condition (atopic dermatitis and/or psoriasis). In order to answer the research question participants filled in questionnaires and an attention bias task (dot-probe task with itch-related pictures) was performed. To establish the level of itch symptoms participants filled in a scale from 0 to 10. The result did not indicate higher attentional bias in patients with higher itch symptoms. The results did not support the expectation that a higher level of itch symptoms leads to a higher attentional bias towards itch. However, this might be due to the low number of participants. Future research should take coping style into account.Show less
Itch is a sensation that draws attention. However, this becomes dysfunctional when more attention is given to itch related stimuli compared to other stimuli, e.g. Attentional Bias (AB), which might...Show moreItch is a sensation that draws attention. However, this becomes dysfunctional when more attention is given to itch related stimuli compared to other stimuli, e.g. Attentional Bias (AB), which might be the case for chronic itch. Therefore, the current study aimed to identify the existence of an AB. It was expected that people with chronic itch would have an AB towards itch related visual stimuli and that a higher level of psychological distress could predict a higher level of AB. Finally, it was expected that a higher level of AB would be associated with a more severe impact on quality of life. A sample of five patients with chronic itch, as a result of atopic dermatitis or psoriasis, participated in the study. To test the presence of an AB towards itch related visual stimuli, a dot-probe test was performed. Furthermore, the level of psychological distress and quality of life were measured using the DASS-21 and the DLQI, respectively. A paired-samples t-test, multiple linear regression and Pearson correlation were used for data analysis. The results do not indicate the presence of an AB toward visual itch related stimuli in a population with chronic itch. Furthermore, psychological distress was not a significant predictor for the level of AB. Finally, no significant association was found between the level of AB and quality of life. Future research should examine different stadia of the attentional process towards itch related stimuli. This would help guide the development of interventions for patients with chronic itch.Show less
The presented study targets the interplay of stress exposure and attentional responses towards threats in connection to trait anxiety. Previous research suggests that an underlying change in threat...Show moreThe presented study targets the interplay of stress exposure and attentional responses towards threats in connection to trait anxiety. Previous research suggests that an underlying change in threat-appraisal (indicated through higher trait anxiety scores) might significantly alter the attentional response of individuals when exposed to stress. Instead of displaying an attentional bias towards mild threats, it was hypothesised that the higher the score in trait anxiety assessment, the greater the avoidance behaviour. This project included 64 female students of Leiden University and assessed trait anxiety via Spielberger’s State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory. Stress (psychosocial, physiological and anticipatory) was induced with three tasks prior to the start of the main experiment. To measure the attentional bias, a dot-probe task was implemented. The task consisted of 206 trials with an 80ms cue delay. Multiple regression analyses and post-hoc correlation analyses were performed, where almost no significant results were observed. Trait anxiety displayed significant effects, while stress exposure remained non-significant. The interaction of trait anxiety and stress exposure did not explain additional variance. The hypothesis regarding the change in attentional responses was thus rejected. Posthoc testing showed no significant correlations between trait anxiety and attentional bias and stress exposure and attentional bias. It remains unclear whether stress exposure significantly affects the attentional response towards threats in relation to trait anxiety.Show less
Background: Threat-related attentional bias is a dynamic process, determined by internal and external factors. Individual differences in attentional control, a core function of the executive system...Show moreBackground: Threat-related attentional bias is a dynamic process, determined by internal and external factors. Individual differences in attentional control, a core function of the executive system, is thought to modulate the expression of attentional bias. Attentional bias is also influenced by the threat level of a stimulus (mild and high). The effect of stress on attentional bias in relation to attentional control and threat level shows considerable heterogeneity. Aims and hypotheses: Investigate the association between attentional bias to different threat levels, stress and attentional control. Stress increases attentional bias towards all threats compared to the control condition. Attentional control moderates the effect of stress on attentional bias towards mild and high threats. Method: Sixty-four female participants completed a self-report attentional control measure, underwent a stress-induction (n = 32) or control (n = 32) procedure and completed the modified dot-probe task. Results: Attentional bias to high and mild threats was not affected by stress. Importantly, attentional control moderated the relation between stress and attentional bias to high threats. High attentional control was associated with an attentional bias towards high threats in the stress condition while high attentional control predicted an attentional bias away from high threats in the control condition on a trend level. This moderation effect was not shown for the association between stress and attentional bias to mild threats. Discussion: This study provides evidence that attentional control plays an important role in the manifestation of attentional bias to high threats in stressful and controlled situations in healthy individuals.Show less
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) can be a crippling disorder characterized by strong avoidance of social situations and encounters due to fear of judgment from others, leading to various social and...Show moreSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) can be a crippling disorder characterized by strong avoidance of social situations and encounters due to fear of judgment from others, leading to various social and interpersonal problems. Socially anxious individuals (SAI) often have cognitive biases that influence how they perceive social feedback from others and can perpetuate the disorder. How SAI learn from social feedback is important, as this can determine their self-view. The goal of this study is to investigate the influence of a specific cognitive bias in attention in socially anxious individuals (SAI) on social feedback learning. This study was conducted using a modified social judgment paradigm, designed to expose participants to positive and negative social feedback from 4 fictitious peers, who vary in their percentage of positive feedback. Participants will learn which peer gives the most and least feedback throughout the task. This will be conducted and measured using Electroencephalography (EEG). The results showed that SAI tend to orient their attention towards unexpected social feedback, regardless of valence. As well as this, SAIs tend to learn less from unexpected negative social feedback compared to lower SAI. Even though SAI payed more attention to unexpected social feedback, we propose that there might be an avoidance coping mechanism which influences the SAI to learn less from the unexpected negative social feedback.Show less
