To look or not to look at threat?
Open accessAbstract
Predicting the behavior of phobic patients in a confrontational situation is challenging. While avoidance as a major clinical component of phobias suggests that patients orient away from threat, findings based on cognitive paradigms indicate an attentional bias towards threat. Here we present eye movement data from 21 spider phobics and 21 control subjects, based on 3 basic oculomotor tasks and a visual exploration task that included close-up views of spiders. Relative to the control group, patients showed accelerated reflexive saccades in one of the basic oculomotor tasks, while the fear-relevant exploration task evoked a general slowing in their scanning behavior and pronounced oculomotor avoidance. However, this avoidance strongly varied within the patient group and was not associated with the scores from spider avoidance-sensitive questionnaire scales. We suggest that variation of oculomotor avoidance between phobics reflects different strategies of how they cope with threat in confrontational situations.
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In specific phobia, eye-tracking studies have revealed that individuals with phobia present a hypervigilance-avoidance pattern characterised by accelerated detection of the feared stimulus, followed by rapid and sustained avoidance of it.
“In the case of SP, thanks to the use of eye-tracking technology, some studies have revealed that individuals with phobia present a hypervigilance–avoidance pattern characterised by accelerated detection of the feared stimulus, followed by rapid and sustained avoidance of it.23 25 26”
From Effectiveness of a projection-based augmented reality exposure system in treating cockroach phobia: Study protocol of a randomised controlled trial (2023) · cites this paper as [25]
Studies that evaluated ocular movements during a free exploration task found the hypervigilance-avoidance pattern typically associated with patients with phobia.
“Specifically, in the small animal phobia research field, studies that evaluated ocular movements during a free exploration task found the hypervigilance–avoidance pattern typically associated with patients with phobia.23 25 26”
From Effectiveness of a projection-based augmented reality exposure system in treating cockroach phobia: Study protocol of a randomised controlled trial (2023) · cites this paper as [25]
Sustained maintenance of gaze on real spiders contrasts with sustained avoidance of gaze on mere images of spiders found over 3 s, 9 s, and 60 s trials.
“The sustained maintenance of gaze on real spiders found byLange et al. (2004) contrasts with the sustained avoidance of gaze on mere images of spiders found over 3 s (Hermans et al., 1999; Rinck & Becker, 2006), 9 s (Pflugshaupt et al., 2007) and 60 s (Rinck & Becker, 2006) trials.”
From Eye tracking of attention in the affective disorders: a meta-analytic review and synthesis (2012) · cites this paper as Pflugshaupt et al., 2007
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Rodriguez-Sobstel, C., Wake, S. J., Dodd, H. F., McSorley, E., van Reekum, C. M., & Morriss, J. (2022) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/uqap3
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- Authors
- Pflugshaupt, T., Mosimann, U. P., Schmitt, W. J., von Wartburg, R., Wurtz, P., Lüthi, M., Nyffeler, T., Hess, C. W., & Müri, R. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Bern (CH)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 353-366
- ISSN
- 0887-6185 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W88716564
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 1.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion)
- Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- spider phobia, eye movements, saccades, visual exploration, confrontation, coping strategies
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Animals, Attention, Cognition, Escape Reaction, Eye Movements, Fixation, Ocular, Humans, Phobic Disorders, Surveys and Questionnaires, Severity of Illness Index, Spiders, Time Factors, Visual Perception, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
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