Attentional Biases in Anxiety Disorders: A Cognitive Perspective

Abstract

Attentional biases in anxiety disorders from a cognitive perspective, focusing on how selective attention processes contribute to the onset, maintenance, and exacerbation of anxiety symptoms. Attentional biases refer to the tendency for individuals with anxiety disorders to selectively attend to threatening or negative stimuli while ignoring neutral or positive information. This cognitive phenomenon plays a critical role in shaping cognitive processing styles, emotional reactivity, and behavioral responses in anxiety disorders. Cognitive theories propose that attentional biases arise from heightened sensitivity to threat cues and difficulties in disengaging attention from threat-related stimuli, processes mediated by interactions between bottom-up sensory inputs and top-down cognitive control mechanisms. Empirical research employing experimental paradigms such as the dot-probe task and emotional Stroop task consistently demonstrates that individuals with anxiety disorders exhibit faster reaction times and greater attentional engagement towards threat-related stimuli compared to non-anxious individuals. Neuroimaging studies further elucidate the neural underpinnings of attentional biases, implicating alterations in brain regions involved in threat detection, emotional regulation, and executive functions. Specifically, hyperactivity in the amygdala and disrupted connectivity with prefrontal cortical regions suggest compromised regulatory mechanisms that perpetuate attentional biases and contribute to heightened anxiety symptoms.