Cited by 33Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesVisual Attention and Saliency DetectionMemory and Neural Mechanisms

To look or not to look at threat?

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Pflugshaupt, Tobias, Mosimann, Urs P., Schmitt, Wolfgang J., von Wartburg, Roman, Wurtz, Pascal, Lüthi, Mathias, Nyffeler, Thomas, Hess, Christian W. +1 more·2007·Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Abstract

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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Crossref · 10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.05.005

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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”
  • 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”
  • 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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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)
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
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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