Key result
Visual threat words drive greater 60-ms prepulse facilitation and 240-ms prepulse inhibition versus nonthreat words.
Why the study?
The effects of visually presented threat and nonthreat word lead stimuli on blink modification and their relation to anxiety processing were not fully understood.
Threat words modulate the startle blink reflex differently than nonthreat words, with early facilitation and later inhibition, particularly in high trait anxious individuals.
Threat word effects on blink modification support attentional bias models in anxiety; leaves open clinical translation for trait assessment.
Two experiments examined the effects of visually presented threat and nonthreat word lead stimuli on blink modification among unselected young adults (Experiment 1, N = 35) and participants selected for low and high trait anxiety (Experiment 2, N = 60). The blink reflex was elicited by a white noise probe of 105 dB. Lead stimulus intervals of 60, 120, 240, and 2000 ms were used in both experiments. Prepulse inhibition was observed at the 240-ms interval and prepulse facilitation was observed at the 60-ms interval in both experiments. Also, greater facilitation was found in both experiments during threat words at the 60-ms interval and greater inhibition during threat words at the 240-ms interval. Experiment 2 provided some evidence that the greater facilitation during threat words than during nonthreat words at the 60-ms probe interval may be found in high trait anxious participants, but not in low trait anxious participants. The results are discussed in relation to contemporary information processing theories of anxiety.
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Aitken et al. (1999) studied Trait anxiety (n=95). Visually presented threat word lead stimuli vs. Nonthreat word lead stimuli was evaluated on Blink modification (prepulse inhibition and facilitation) elicited by a white noise probe of 105 dB. Visually presented threat words resulted in greater prepulse facilitation at the 60-ms interval and greater prepulse inhibition at the 240-ms interval compared to nonthreat words.
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