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 Psychology explain 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 &