Attention Bias to Threat in Maltreated Children: Implications for Vulnerability to Stress-Related Psychopathology

TLDR

Attention bias has been linked to PTSD in adults, with high abuse or PTSD levels predicting avoidance of threatening faces, and prior studies have examined brain regions involved in orienting to angry faces. The study aimed to investigate whether children who have experienced maltreatment exhibit attention bias toward threatening faces and whether this bias relates to PTSD. Researchers employed a picture‑based visual‑probe task presenting neutral, angry/threatening, and happy faces for 500 ms to 34 maltreated and 21 non‑maltreated children to assess bias. Children with greater physical abuse severity and PTSD diagnosis showed an attention bias away from threatening faces.

Abstract

Previous research in adults implicates attention bias in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To study attention bias in children, the authors used picture-based versions of the visual-probe attention bias task previously used with adults. They tested the hypothesis that attention bias to threatening facial photographs is associated with maltreatment and PTSD.A visual-probe task that manipulated threat levels was used to test 34 children who had been maltreated and 21 children who had not been maltreated. The visual-probe task involved showing photographs of actors with faces depicting neutral, angry/threatening, or happy expressions for 500 msec each.Attention bias away from threat was associated with severity of physical abuse and diagnosis of PTSD. This association reflected the tendency for high levels of abuse or PTSD to predict attention avoidance of threatening faces.Previous studies examined the engagement of specific brain regions associated with attention orientation to angry/threatening faces. The current study used similar methods to document associations between attention bias and maltreatment in children. This sets the stage for studies examining relationships in children among perturbed brain function, psychopathology, attention bias, and maltreatment.