Brain changes associated with decreased anxiety after attention-bias modification training

A new study has identified neuroplastic changes in brain structure that accompany attention-refractive modification training in highly anxious individuals. The findings, which appear in the journal Biological Psychologyexplain the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of treatment.

Research has shown that the brain prioritizes threatening information over non-threatening information. But in highly anxious individuals, this attentional bias can be overwhelming and detrimental. The authors of the new study seek to better understand changes in brain structure that result from modification of attentional bias, an intervention that seeks to systematically train attention away from threatening stimuli and toward neutral stimuli.

“Our laboratory has had a longstanding interest in understanding the behavioral and neural mechanisms of affective attention and attentional bias towards affective information,” said study authors Josh Carlson and Lin Fang of the Cognitive x Affective Behavior & Integrated Neuroscience (CABIN) Lab in Northern Michigan. University.

“We were interested in attentional biases towards affective information from both an adaptive (e.g., detecting and paying attention to threats in the environment) and maladaptive (e.g., threat-attentional biases perspective, which is characteristic of anxiety disorders).”

In the new study, 61 left-handed women (aged 18 to 38) were randomly assigned to complete 6 weeks of attention bias modification or control treatment using their smartphone.

“Attention bias modification is intended to reduce maladaptive attentional bias to threats, which in turn reduces anxiety symptoms,” explain the researchers. “Although the effectiveness of attention-bias modification interventions has been mixed in the literature, our aim was to determine how the brain changes after attention-bias modification training and how these changes in the brain relate to symptom reduction after attention-bias modification.”

Previous research has shown that attention bias modification is most effective among anxious individuals who exhibit a high attentional bias towards threats. With this in mind, the researchers screened participants for having high levels of anxiety and some degree of attention bias.

Using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers observed differences in brain structure and function between those who completed the attention-bias modification treatment and those who completed the control treatment. Specifically, those who completed the attention bias modification treatment showed increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region associated with anxiety and mood disorders. They also found increased functional connectivity between the superior frontal gyrus and the anterior cingulate cortex and insula.

Importantly, increased levels of anterior cingulate cortex gray matter volume were associated with decreased anxiety after attentional bias modification treatment.

“We think the three main takeaways from our data are (1) interventions such as attention bias modification that are used to target psychopathological symptoms that appear to ‘improve’ (or alter) brain structure and function, (2) these changes appear to be associated with brain regions. who have traditionally been involved in emotional responses and cognitive control, and (3) individuals with the greatest changes in brain structure were those who experienced the greatest reductions in anxiety symptoms (that is, the degree to which changes in brain structure were associated with efficacy). attention bias modification intervention),” Carlson and Fang told PsyPost.

But this study, like all research, includes some caveats. The participants in the study had high levels of trait anxiety, which captures a general tendency to experience anxiety. However, it is different from a diagnosis of anxiety disorder. “Therefore, although our results suggest that changes in brain structure and function accompany modification of attentional bias in individuals with high anxiety traits, it is not clear whether these findings generalize to clinical anxiety samples,” explain the investigators.

“In addition, the attention bias modification intervention did not reduce anxiety across the sample,” Carlson and Fang wrote. “That is, not everyone seems to benefit from the training. However, as noted above, our data suggest that those with greater changes in brain structure are more likely to experience reduced anxiety symptoms. We are currently using this dataset to assess whether pre-training MRI-based biomarkers can predict who is most likely to benefit from an attention-bias modification intervention.”

The new research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health Academic Research Enhancement Award.

Study, “Neuroplastic changes in anterior cingulate cortex gray matter volume and functional connectivity following modification of attentional bias in highly trait anxious individuals”, written by Joshua M.Carlson, Lin Fang, Ernst HW Koster, Jeremy A. Andrzejewski, Hayley Gilbertson , Katherine A. Elwell, and Taylor R. Zuidema.

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