Spatial attention impairments are characterized by specific electro-encephalographic correlates and partially mediate the association between early life stress and anxiety

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arielle S. Keller ◽  
Ruth Ling ◽  
Leanne M. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Attention Impairments

Spatial attention impairments are characterized by specific electro-encephalographic correlates and partially mediate the association between early life stress and anxiety

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arielle S. Keller ◽  
Ruth Ling ◽  
Leanne Maree Williams
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Stressful Events ◽  
Diagnostic Feature ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Eeg Recordings ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Attention Impairments

Although impaired attention is a diagnostic feature of anxiety disorders, we lack an understanding of which aspects of attention are impaired, the neurobiological basis of these impairments and the contribution of stressors. To address these gaps in knowledge, we developed and tested behavioral tasks designed to parse which subdomains of attention are more impaired with higher self-reported anxiety symptoms and used electro-encephalographic (EEG) recordings to probe the neural basis of attentional performance. Participants were n=57 individuals aged 18-35 with mild-to-moderate mood and anxiety symptoms. We took account of the COVID-19 pandemic as a naturalistic probe for prolonged stress occurring at a similar point in time for each participant. In these same participants, we assessed stressful events in early life prior to age 18 within discrete age brackets that may have a prolonged impact on neural functioning. Severity of anxiety was found to be specifically associated with impairments in spatial attention but not feature-based attention. Impairments in spatial selective attention were associated with decreased posterior alpha oscillations in EEG recordings, while spatial divided attention impairments were associated with a different profile of decreased fronto-central theta oscillations. These impairments in spatial attention also partially mediated the association between early life stressors and anxiety symptoms and were found to worsen as a function of prolonged current stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results provide a thorough characterization of attention impairments associated with anxiety, their electro-encephalographic correlates and the impact of stressors both in early life and in adulthood.

The effects of early life stress on context fear generalization in adult rats.

2019 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie D. Elliott ◽  
Rick Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Adult Rats ◽  
Fear Generalization

Neurobiology of early life stress: Rodent studies

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A Gutman ◽  
Charles B. Nemeroff
Keyword(s):  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress

Defining Early Life Stress as a Precursor for Autoimmune Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 329-342
Author(s):  
Jamie Y. Choe ◽  
Maya Nair ◽  
Riyaz Basha ◽  
Byung-Jin Kim ◽  
Harlan P. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Autoimmune Disease ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress
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