Angry and Fearful Face Conflict Effects in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Frontiers in Psychology
Victoria Ashley, Diane Swick

Abstract

In the presence of threatening stimuli, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can manifest as hypervigilance for threat and disrupted attentional control. PTSD patients have shown exaggerated interference effects on tasks using trauma-related or threat stimuli. In studies of PTSD, faces with negative expressions are often used as threat stimuli, yet angry and fearful facial expressions may elicit different responses. The modified Eriksen flanker task, or the emotional face flanker, has been used to examine response interference. We compared 23 PTSD patients and 23 military controls on an emotional face flanker task using angry, fearful and neutral expressions. Participants identified the emotion of a central target face flanked by faces with either congruent or incongruent emotions. As expected, both groups showed slower reaction times (RTs) and decreased accuracy on emotional target faces, relative to neutral. Unexpectedly, both groups showed nearly identical interference effects on fearful and neutral target trials. However, post hoc testing suggested that PTSD patients showed faster RTs than controls on congruent angry faces (target and flanker faces both angry) relative to incongruent, although this finding should be interp...Continue Reading

References

Feb 1, 1982·The British Journal of Clinical Psychology·D E BroadbentK R Parkes
Nov 1, 1993·Psychological Bulletin·R Ratcliff
Dec 17, 2002·NeuroImage·Ahmad R HaririDaniel R Weinberger
Jun 1, 1961·Archives of General Psychiatry·A T BECKJ ERBAUGH
Oct 4, 2005·The American Journal of Psychiatry·Jorge L ArmonyAlain Brunet
Dec 13, 2005·The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience·Peter KirschAndreas Meyer-Lindenberg
Oct 20, 2006·Behaviour Research and Therapy·Suzanne L PinelesIftah Yovel
May 9, 2007·Neuropsychology·Lorraine P Leskin, Patricia M White
Sep 4, 2007·Biological Psychology·Karin MoggBrendan P Bradley
Dec 25, 2007·Journal of Traumatic Stress·Matthew JakupcakMiles E McFall
Mar 7, 2008·The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience·K Luan PhanHarriet de Wit
Mar 21, 2008·Biological Psychology·Jason S MoserRobert F Simons
Aug 30, 2008·Military Medicine·Rani A DesaiRobert A Rosenheck
Mar 4, 2009·Behavioral and Brain Functions : BBF·Victoria Ashley, Diane Swick
Apr 1, 2009·Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance·Margaret C JacksonJane E Raymond
Feb 23, 2010·Behavior Therapy·Bunmi O OlatunjiDavid F Tolin
Jun 17, 2010·The American Journal of Psychiatry·Eric B ElbogenJean C Beckham
Feb 22, 2012·International Journal of Psychophysiology : Official Journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology·Anna WeinbergGreg Hajcak
May 19, 2012·Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS·Diane SwickTimothy Justus
Jan 1, 2011·Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders·Alan N SimmonsMartin P Paulus
Dec 12, 2012·Psychiatry Research·Michael Schönenberg, Teresa Abdelrahman
Mar 21, 2013·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Nick Berggren, Nazanin Derakshan
Jan 21, 2015·Frontiers in Psychology·Michal OlszanowskiRafal K Ohme
Jul 1, 2015·Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS·Joseph DeGutisRegina McGlinchey
Aug 12, 2015·International Journal of Psychology : Journal International De Psychologie·L Y Lo, M Y Cheng
Dec 29, 2015·Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry·Siqi ChenMuyu Lin
Feb 20, 2016·Cognition & Emotion·Lotte VeenstraSander L Koole
Jun 3, 2016·Frontiers in Psychology·Barbara Schulte HolthausenUte Habel
Jun 22, 2016·Psychophysiology·Ruud HortensiusDennis J L G Schutter
Jan 17, 2017·Progress in Neuro-psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry·Julia A DiGangiK Luan Phan

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Nov 13, 2020·Current Psychiatry Reports·Katja BertschSabine C Herpertz
Nov 4, 2020·Brain Sciences·Christian ManciniGiovanni Mirabella
Oct 20, 2020·International Journal of Psychophysiology : Official Journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology·Rosemaree Kathleen Miller, Frances Heritage Martin

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Software Mentioned

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
JASP

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Anxiety Disorders

Discover the latest research on anxiety disorders including agoraphobia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder here.