CHRONOMETRICS OF ATTENTIONAL PROCESSES IN ANXIETY DISORDERS

Two experimental paradigms were used to test for the presence of atten tional bias in patients with panic disorders and social phobias. The r esults of the first experiment on the detection of visual probes emplo ying the paradigm of MacLeod et al. indicate specific affects as a fun ction of the physical or social emotional connotation of the probe wor ds. Attention of patients with panic disorders was apparently restrict ed to words denoting physical threat. No effect related to the threate ning connotation of words was observed for the social-phobia patients. In contrast, the control subjects presented an avoidance reaction for social-threat words. Experiment 2 showed an interference effect for w ords indicating physical threat in the panic disorder patients. Howeve r, the same subjects exhibited avoidance of social-threat words. The d istracter effect for physical-threat words was only observed when thes e words were displayed in the left visual hemifield. This finding is i nterpreted as strengthening the hypothesis of a right-hemispheric spec ialization for the processing of words with emotional content.