CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 22Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ResearchAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesPsychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research

Trauma, attentional dysregulation, and the development of posttraumatic stress: An investigation of risk pathways

Schäfer, Judith, Zvielli, Ariel, Höfler, Michael, Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich, Bernstein, Amit·2018·Behaviour Research and Therapy
DOI 10.1016/j.brat.2018.01.004
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background Fundamental questions regarding the nature and function of attentional bias (AB) to threat in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain unanswered. We tested the temporal interplay between trauma exposure, dysregulated attentional processing of threatening information pre- and post-trauma, and the development of posttraumatic intrusions.Methods Response time to trauma-related threat, trauma-unrelated threat, as well as to trauma-related but typically emotionally-neutral stimuli was assessed using the dot probe task before and one week after watching a violent movie scene that served as a trauma analogue. AB was analyzed as a dynamic process by means of a recently developed approach indexing momentary fluctuations of AB toward and away from emotional stimuli. Posttraumatic intrusions were measured daily over the week following analogue trauma exposure.Results We found that key features of AB dynamics to trauma-related stimuli at post-, but not pre-, trauma exposure were associated with posttraumatic intrusions. Notably, these post-trauma exposure effects were specific to biased attentional processing of trauma-related but not threatening stimuli unrelated to the traumatic event. In line with a growing body of findings, pre- and post-trauma exposure traditional aggregated mean AB scores were not similarly associated with posttraumatic intrusions.Conclusions We conclude that one mechanism through which trauma exposure may contribute to the development of PTSD is through its dysregulation of attentional processing of trauma event-related cues. Future work may focus on delineating the developmental course through which attentional dysregulation post-trauma and posttraumatic intrusions unfold and interact.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.brat.2018.01.004

Cites

50 of 50 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Biased attentional processing of trauma-related cues after exposure to analogue trauma predicted higher subsequent intrusive memory frequency.

    “Studies have shown that biased attentional processing of trauma-related cues after exposure to analogue trauma predicted higher subsequent intrusive memory frequency”

    From Intrusive memories of trauma: A target for research bridging cognitive science and its clinical application (2019) · cites this paper as Schäfer, Zvielli, Höfler, Wittchen, & Bernstein, 2018

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 51 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Schäfer, J., Zvielli, A., Höfler, M., Wittchen, H.-U., & Bernstein, A.
Affiliations
  • Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
  • University of Haifa (IL)
Corresponding author
Schäfer, Judith
ORCID
Venue
Behaviour Research and Therapy
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2018-03
Volume
102
Pages
60-66
ISSN
0005-7967 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.brat.2018.01.004
OpenAlex
W2783151236
Cited by
22
References
51
Citations by year
2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1
FWCI
4.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Behaviour Research and Therapy (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Technische Universität Dresden
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
Keywords
post-traumatic stress disorder, attentional bias to threat, trauma exposure, dot-probe task, attention dynamics, RISK pathway
MeSH terms
Attentional Bias, Adolescent, Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Photic Stimulation, Risk Factors, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Wounds and Injuries, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review