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. 2009 Feb;47(2):153-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2008.10.020. Epub 2008 Nov 5.

Attenuation of attention bias in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Nader Amir  1 , Sadia Najmi, Amanda S Morrison
Affiliations

Attenuation of attention bias in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Nader Amir et al. Behav Res Ther. 2009 Feb.

Abstract

Cognitive theories of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suggest that the disorder is characterized by an attention bias towards personally relevant threatening material. However, existing research on attention bias in OCD has yielded conflicting findings. One possibility that might account for the null findings is that attention bias may diminish over the course of the experiment. The present study tested this hypothesis using a visual dot-probe task with idiographic word selection. Results from our study confirmed that individuals with OC symptoms show an attention bias towards idiographically selected, threatening information in the first block of trials, and that the degree of this bias is correlated with the severity of OC symptoms. The temporal pattern of attention bias over the course of the experiment was consistent with our hypothesis. A comparison of early and late blocks of trials revealed an attenuation of attention bias in individuals with OC symptoms, potentially reflecting habituation to threatening information over the course of the experiment.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Attention Bias scores for individuals high in obsessive-compulsive symptoms (high-OC group) compared to individuals low in obsessive-compulsive symptoms (low-OC group).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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