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Visual Attention to Threat-Related Faces and Delusion-Proneness: An Eye Tracking Study Using Dynamic Stimuli

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Abstract

Visual attention to threat-related facial expressions possibly contributes to delusion formation and maintenance and may serve as a vulnerability marker. The aim of the present study was to examine visual attention to threat-related facial expressions using dynamic stimuli in people with differing levels of delusion-proneness. We expected that threat-relevant facial expressions would attract more foveal attention compared to neutral faces. Additionally, we hypothesized that more delusion-prone individuals would show foveal avoidance and that this avoidance would occur particularly in the visual processing of threat-related faces. In a quasi-experimental design we categorized our sample by the paranoia checklist (PCL) into a high-PCL (n = 25) and low-PCL (n = 30) group. The participants’ task was to view emotional facial expressions in validated film sequences while eye movements were measured. A mixed ANOVA for the number of fixations and equivalent non-parametric tests for fixation time were conducted. Both groups spent significantly more time viewing relevant features in threat-related faces compared to neutral faces. A significant main effect for group indicated fewer fixations in the high-PCL group compared to the low-PCL group for all faces. A significant Group × Affect interaction indicated that the number of fixations differed between the high-PCL group and the low-PCL group depending on whether the faces displayed neutral or threat-related expressions. The findings suggest that higher delusion-proneness is already associated with a deviant style of visually attending to facial expressions even in people who do not have a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia. This style may thus be a vulnerability marker for psychosis.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge creation of stimulus material and data collection efforts of Jasmin Ehrhardt and the support by Anton Gollwitzer.

Conflict of Interest

Tobias Hillmann, Jürgen Kempkensteffen, and Tania Lincoln declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual subjects included in the study. All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards and was approved by the ethics committee of the local Chamber of Psychotherapists.

Animal Rights

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Correspondence to Tobias E. Hillmann.

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Hillmann, T.E., Kempkensteffen, J. & Lincoln, T.M. Visual Attention to Threat-Related Faces and Delusion-Proneness: An Eye Tracking Study Using Dynamic Stimuli. Cogn Ther Res 39, 808–815 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9699-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9699-z

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