The effects of a-priori expectancies on attention bias toward threatening stimuli

The role of attention bias in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders has been studied extensively over decades. Attention bias reflects maladaptation in cognitive processing, as perceived threatening stimuli receive prioritized processing even when they are task-irrelevant or factually unthreatening. Recently, there has been some interest in the role of a-priori expectancies in attention bias toward threat. The present series of studies examines the causal interaction between expectancy and attention biases, especially in spider phobia and in blood-injection phobia.

Relevant Literature:

Abado, E., Sagi, J., Silber, N., De Houwer, J., Aue, T., & Okon-Singer, H. (2020). Reducing attention bias in spider fear by manipulating expectancies. Behaviour research and therapy, 135, 103729.

Abado, E., Aue, T., & Okon-Singer, H. (2020). The missing pieces of the puzzle: a review on the interactive nature of a-priori expectancies and attention bias toward threat. Brain Sciences, 10(10), 745.

Abado, E., Richter, T., & Okon-Singer, H. (2020). Attention bias toward negative stimuli. In Cognitive Biases in Health and Psychiatric Disorders (pp. 19-40). Academic Press.

Abado, E., Aue, T., De Houwer, J., & Okon-Singer, H. (2021). Expectancy and Attention Bias in Phylogenetic Vs. Ontogenetic Stimuli. Biological Psychiatry, 89(9), S128.

Abado, E., Aue, T., & Okon-Singer, H. (2021). Cognitive biases in blood-injection-injury phobia: A review. Frontiers in psychiatry, 1158.

Attentional biases in individuals at high risk of developing hypertension

Essential hypertension is the most important risk factor for cerebrovascular diseases, which are a major cause of death in industrialized societies. In several projects, we develop continuous measurement and analysis of blood pressure reactions to emotional stimuli among individuals at high risk of developing hypertension. We also examine whether deficient attentional mechanisms and neural abnormalities in prefrontal-limbic pathways are related to magnified blood pressure reactions to aversive stimuli. The use of cutting-edge measurement methods and advanced analysis is expected to provide new data necessary for understanding how the brain controls reactions to aversive information in health and disease.

Relevant Literature:

Wiener, A., Goldstein, P., Doenyas, K., & Okon-Singer, H. (2021). Abnormalities in emotional and motor reactions among young prehypertensive individuals: employing continuous blood pressure analysis. Journal of Hypertension.

Wiener, A., Rohr, C. S., Naor, N., Villringer, A., & Okon-Singer, H. (2020). Emotion Regulation in Essential Hypertension: Roles of Anxiety, Stress, and the Pulvinar. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

​Wiener, A., Goldstein, P., Alkoby, O., Doenyas, K., & Okon‐Singer, H. (2020). Blood pressure reaction to negative stimuli: Insights from continuous recording and analysis. Psychophysiology, 57(4), e13525.

Interpersonal distance estimation bias: a new avenue for understanding approach-avoidance

People closely monitor and appropriately regulate their interpersonal space to obtain a comfortable distance while interacting with others. In this line of studies, we examined the perception of the interpersonal distance in populations that are prone to difficulties in regulating the interpersonal distance adaptevelly- in social anxiety disorder, and in autism spectrum disorder. Our results indicated that the way in which the interpersonal distance is perceived, can predict the actual distance the individual would prefer to maintain from others. For example, individuals with social anxiety perceive the interpersonal distance as shorter, which, in turn, is associated with their preference for greater interpersonal distance from the social partner. We use novel implicit and explicit measures for distance perception and regulation that were developed in the lab. These tasks are both computerized and simulating a real-life scenario. Current line of work is examining the role of the distance estimation bias in regulating interpersonal distance among individuals with autism.

Relevant Literature:

Givon‐Benjio, N., Oren‐Yagoda, R., Aderka, I. M., & Okon‐Singer, H. (2020). Biased distance estimation in social anxiety disorder: A new avenue for understanding avoidance behavior. Depression and Anxiety, 37(12), 1243-1252.

Givon-Benjio, N., & Okon-Singer, H. (2020). Biased Estimations of Interpersonal Distance in Non-Clinical Social Anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 102171.