Angry and Fearful Face Conflict Effects in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
In the presence of threatening stimuli, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can manifest as hypervigilance for threat and disrupted attentional control. PTSD patients have shown exaggerated interference effects on tasks using trauma-related or threat stimuli. In studies of PTSD, faces with negativ...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00136/full |
| _version_ | 1817998017334083584 |
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| author | Victoria Ashley Diane Swick Diane Swick |
| author_facet | Victoria Ashley Diane Swick Diane Swick |
| author_sort | Victoria Ashley |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the presence of threatening stimuli, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can manifest as hypervigilance for threat and disrupted attentional control. PTSD patients have shown exaggerated interference effects on tasks using trauma-related or threat stimuli. In studies of PTSD, faces with negative expressions are often used as threat stimuli, yet angry and fearful facial expressions may elicit different responses. The modified Eriksen flanker task, or the emotional face flanker, has been used to examine response interference. We compared 23 PTSD patients and 23 military controls on an emotional face flanker task using angry, fearful and neutral expressions. Participants identified the emotion of a central target face flanked by faces with either congruent or incongruent emotions. As expected, both groups showed slower reaction times (RTs) and decreased accuracy on emotional target faces, relative to neutral. Unexpectedly, both groups showed nearly identical interference effects on fearful and neutral target trials. However, post hoc testing suggested that PTSD patients showed faster RTs than controls on congruent angry faces (target and flanker faces both angry) relative to incongruent, although this finding should be interpreted with caution. This possible RT facilitation effect with angry, but not fearful faces, also correlated positively with self-report measures of PTSD symptoms. These results suggest that PTSD patients may be more vigilant for, or primed to respond to, the appearance of angry faces, relative to fearful, but further study is needed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T02:47:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6ac960c5ef7549e3b1de2294f6667d54 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T02:47:58Z |
| publishDate | 2019-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-6ac960c5ef7549e3b1de2294f6667d542022-12-22T02:16:27ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782019-02-011010.3389/fpsyg.2019.00136421769Angry and Fearful Face Conflict Effects in Post-traumatic Stress DisorderVictoria Ashley0Diane Swick1Diane Swick2Research Service, Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System, Martinez, CA, United StatesResearch Service, Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System, Martinez, CA, United StatesDepartment of Neurology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United StatesIn the presence of threatening stimuli, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can manifest as hypervigilance for threat and disrupted attentional control. PTSD patients have shown exaggerated interference effects on tasks using trauma-related or threat stimuli. In studies of PTSD, faces with negative expressions are often used as threat stimuli, yet angry and fearful facial expressions may elicit different responses. The modified Eriksen flanker task, or the emotional face flanker, has been used to examine response interference. We compared 23 PTSD patients and 23 military controls on an emotional face flanker task using angry, fearful and neutral expressions. Participants identified the emotion of a central target face flanked by faces with either congruent or incongruent emotions. As expected, both groups showed slower reaction times (RTs) and decreased accuracy on emotional target faces, relative to neutral. Unexpectedly, both groups showed nearly identical interference effects on fearful and neutral target trials. However, post hoc testing suggested that PTSD patients showed faster RTs than controls on congruent angry faces (target and flanker faces both angry) relative to incongruent, although this finding should be interpreted with caution. This possible RT facilitation effect with angry, but not fearful faces, also correlated positively with self-report measures of PTSD symptoms. These results suggest that PTSD patients may be more vigilant for, or primed to respond to, the appearance of angry faces, relative to fearful, but further study is needed.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00136/fullemotionPTSDflankerfacesangerattention bias |
| spellingShingle | Victoria Ashley Diane Swick Diane Swick Angry and Fearful Face Conflict Effects in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Frontiers in Psychology emotion PTSD flanker faces anger attention bias |
| title | Angry and Fearful Face Conflict Effects in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder |
| title_full | Angry and Fearful Face Conflict Effects in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder |
| title_fullStr | Angry and Fearful Face Conflict Effects in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder |
| title_full_unstemmed | Angry and Fearful Face Conflict Effects in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder |
| title_short | Angry and Fearful Face Conflict Effects in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder |
| title_sort | angry and fearful face conflict effects in post traumatic stress disorder |
| topic | emotion PTSD flanker faces anger attention bias |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00136/full |
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