Attention Alterations in Pediatric Anxiety: Evidence From Behavior and Neuroimaging

摘要

BACKGROUND: Pediatric anxiety disorders involve greater capture of attention by threatening stimuli. However, it is not known if disturbances extend to nonthreatening stimuli, as part of a pervasive disturbance in attention-related brain systems. We hypothesized that pediatric anxiety involves greater capture of attention by salient, nonemotional stimuli, coupled with greater activity in the portion of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) specific to the ventral attention network (VAN).