Symposia
Translational
Brady Nelson, Ph.D.
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York
Clare C. Beatty, BA
Clinical Psychology PhD student
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York
Rachel Ferry, PhD
Graduate Student
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York
Daniel Klein, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY
An attentional bias to threat has been implicated in the etiology and maintenance of multiple forms of psychopathology. There is growing evidence that the temporal unpredictability of threat is a key characteristic that impacts attentional processing of threat—and might contribute to psychopathology and risk. The current presentation will review evidence across two independent studies of adolescents (Study 1 N = 395 15-year-old males and females; Study 2 N = 193 13-22-year-old females) that examined adolescent event-related potential measures of attentional biases in relation to both adolescent psychopathology and parental clinical traits and psychopathology as indicators of risk. Across both studies, adolescents completed the no, predictable, and unpredictable threat task while electroencephalography was recorded. The startle probe N100 was examined as an indicator of early sensory/perceptual processing, and the startle probe P300 was examined as an indicator of later attentional processing. In Study 1, adolescents and their parent were interviewed to assess lifetime history of psychopathology. In Study 2, adolescents and their parent completed a self-report questionnaire of intolerance of uncertainty—a clinical trait associated with risk for psychopathology. Across both studies, the probe N100 was enhanced in anticipation of unpredictable threat, while the probe P300 was suppressed in anticipation of predictable and unpredictable threat (indicating the threatening context captured attention). In Study 1, greater adolescent internalizing psychopathology was associated with greater probe P300 suppression in anticipation of unpredictable threat. Moreover, greater parental internalizing psychopathology was associated with greater adolescent P300 suppression to both predictable and unpredictable threat. In Study 2, greater parental intolerance of uncertainty was associated with greater adolescent probe N100 enhancement to unpredictable threat. Together, these studies indicate that attentional biases to threat are related to both lifetime psychopathology and familial risk in adolescents.