The Missing Pieces of the Puzzle: A Review on the Interactive Nature of A-Priori Expectancies and Attention Bias toward Threat

Abado, Elinor; Aue, Tatjana; Okon-Singer, Hadas (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), p. 745. MDPI 10.3390/brainsci10100745

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The role of attention bias toward threat in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety has been studied extensively over decades. Attention bias reflects maladaptation in executive functions, 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 current perspective article will present recent studies as examples that emphasize the need for more comprehensive research about the interactive effects of various factors that affect the relationship between expectancies and attention bias toward negative stimuli in anxiety. The current perspective article suggests a holistic view, which advocates for more integrative research, as a dynamic network could underlie changes in attention bias. The study of the interaction between such factors, with a focus on expectancy, can lead to more ecological and clinically important results, and thus to more informed and fine-tuned attention bias modification methods and cognitive trainings that are based on manipulation of expectancies. Such methods, in turn, can also help in shedding light on the research of attention bias, in a mutual relationship between research and therapy.

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