Sungjin Im1, Maya A Marder2, Gabriella Imbriano3, Tamara J Sussman4, Aprajita Mohanty3. 1. Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ. 2. Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL. 3. Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY. 4. Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, Irving Medical Center, New York, NY.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Threat-related cues and contexts facilitate perceptual decision-making, yet it is unclear whether this threat-driven tuning of perceptual decision-making is modifiable by top-down attentional control. Since state and dispositional mindfulness are linked to improved attentional control, we examined whether these factors assist the use of prior knowledge to detect threatening stimuli. METHODS: Participants were randomly assigned to a brief mindfulness-based intervention (N=32) or a physics lecture audio recording (N=31) and then asked to perform a task in which they used threatening and neutral cues to discriminate between threatening and neutral faces. RESULTS: Results showed that threatening cues led to faster and more sensitive perceptual decision-making, specifically for threatening faces. Furthermore, higher levels of dispositional mindfulness were associated with improved ability to use cues to discriminate between threatening and neutral stimuli in the group that underwent a brief mindfulness induction but not in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight how top-down attention-related dispositions and strategies can influence our ability to detect threats in our environment.
OBJECTIVES: Threat-related cues and contexts facilitate perceptual decision-making, yet it is unclear whether this threat-driven tuning of perceptual decision-making is modifiable by top-down attentional control. Since state and dispositional mindfulness are linked to improved attentional control, we examined whether these factors assist the use of prior knowledge to detect threatening stimuli. METHODS: Participants were randomly assigned to a brief mindfulness-based intervention (N=32) or a physics lecture audio recording (N=31) and then asked to perform a task in which they used threatening and neutral cues to discriminate between threatening and neutral faces. RESULTS: Results showed that threatening cues led to faster and more sensitive perceptual decision-making, specifically for threatening faces. Furthermore, higher levels of dispositional mindfulness were associated with improved ability to use cues to discriminate between threatening and neutral stimuli in the group that underwent a brief mindfulness induction but not in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight how top-down attention-related dispositions and strategies can influence our ability to detect threats in our environment.