Abstract
A negative bias in the deployment of attention to emotional stimuli is commonly found in both anxiety and depression. Recent work has highlighted that such biases are causally related to emotional vulnerability, suggesting that interventions that ameliorate them may be therapeutic. Here, we review the evidence that attentional bias can be modified using both pharmacological and psychological interventions. We highlight the behavioral and neuroimaging studies that suggest that these interventions impact upon attention via alteration of distinct neural mechanisms. Specifically, pharmacological interventions appear to influence the initial deployment of attention via an effect on the amygdala-based stimulus appraisal system, whereas psychological interventions influence attention at later time points and may alter activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex. Finally, we suggest a conceptual framework that embraces both pharmacological and psychological approaches and consider the possible implications of this work for future research and treatment development.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Damasio, H., & Damasio, A. R. (1995). Fear and the human amygdala. Journal of Neuroscience, 15, 5879–5891.
Algom, D., Chajut, E., & Lev, S. (2004). A rational look at the emotional Stroop phenomenon: A generic slowdown, not a Stroop effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 323–338.
Amir, N., Beard, C., Burns, M., & Bomyea, J. (2009). Attention modification program in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 28–33.
Arce, E., Simmons, A. N., Lovero, K. L., Stein, M. B., & Paulus, M. P. (2008). Escitalopram effects on insula and amygdala BOLD activation during emotional processing. Psychopharmacology, 196, 661–672.
Aston-Jones, G., & Cohen, J. D. (2005). An integrative theory of locus coeruleus-norepinephrine function: Adaptive gain and optimal performance. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 28, 403–450.
Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: International University Press.
Bishop, S. J. (2007). Neurocognitive mechanisms of anxiety: An integrative account. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 307–316.
Bishop, S. J., Duncan, J., Brett, M., & Lawrence, A. D. (2004). Prefrontal cortical function and anxiety: Controlling attention to threatrelated stimuli. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 184–188.
Bishop, S. J., Duncan, J., & Lawrence, A. D. (2004). State anxiety modulation of the amygdala response to unattended threat-related stimuli. Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 10364–10368.
Booij, L., Van der Does, A. J. W., Haffmans, P. M. J., Riedel, W. J., Fekkes, D., & Blom, M. J. B. (2005). The effects of high-dose and low-dose tryptophan depletion on mood and cognitive functions of remitted depressed patients. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 19, 267–275.
Booij, L., Van der Does, A. J. W., & Riedel, W. J. (2003). Monoamine depletion in psychiatric and healthy populations: Review. Molecular Psychiatry, 8, 951–973.
Bradley, B. P., Mogg, K., & Lee, S. C. (1997). Attentional biases for negative information in induced and naturally occurring dysphoria. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 35, 911–927.
Browning, M., Holmes, E. A., Murphy, S. E., Goodwin, G. M., & Harmer, C. J. (in press). Lateral prefrontal cortex mediates the cognitive modification of attentional bias. Biological Psychiatry.
Browning, M., Reid, C., Cowen, P. J., Goodwin, G. M., & Harmer, C. J. (2007). A single dose of citalopram increases fear recognition in healthy subjects. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 21, 684–690.
Canli, T., Sivers, H., Whitfield, S. L., Gotlib, I. H., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2002). Amygdala response to happy faces as a function of extraversion. Science, 296, 2191.
Carver, C. S., Johnson, S. L., & Joormann, J. (2008). Serotonergic function, two-mode models of self-regulation, and vulnerability to depression: What depression has in common with impulsive aggression. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 912–943.
Carver, C. S., & White, T. L. (1994). Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: The BIS/BAS scales. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 67, 319–333.
Cools, R., Calder, A. J., Lawrence, A. D., Clark, L., Bullmore, E., & Robbins, T. W. (2005). Individual differences in threat sensitivity predict serotonergic modulation of amygdala response to fearful faces. Psychopharmacology, 180, 670–679.
Cooper, R. M., & Langton, S. R. H. (2006). Attentional bias to angry faces using the dot-probe task? It depends when you look for it. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 44, 1321–1329.
Dandeneau, S. D., & Baldwin, M. W. (2004). The inhibition of socially rejecting information among people with high versus low selfesteem: The role of attentional bias and the effects of bias reduction training. Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 23, 584–602.
Dandeneau, S. D., Baldwin, M. W., Baccus, J. R., Sakellaropoulo, M., & Pruessner, J. C. (2007). Cutting stress off at the pass: Reducing vigilance and responsiveness to social threat by manipulating attention. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 93, 651–666.
Davis, M., & Whalen, P. J. (2001). The amygdala: Vigilance and emotion. Molecular Psychiatry, 6, 13–34.
Del-Ben, C. M., Deakin, J. F., McKie, S., Delvai, N. A., Williams, S. R., Elliott, R., et al. (2005). The effect of citalopram pretreatment on neuronal responses to neuropsychological tasks in normal volunteers: An FMRI study. Neuropsychopharmacology, 30, 1724–1734.
De Martino, B., Strange, B. A., & Dolan, R. J. (2008). Noradrenergic neuromodulation of human attention for emotional and neutral stimuli. Psychopharmacology, 197, 127–136.
De Raedt, R., & Koster, E. H. W. (2010). Understanding vulnerability for depression from a cognitive neuroscience perspective: A reappraisal of attentional factors and a new conceptual framework. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 50–70.
DeRubeis, R. J., Hollon, S. D., Amsterdam, J. D., Shelton, R. C., Young, P. R., Salomon, R. M., et al. (2005). Cognitive therapy vs medications in the treatment of moderate to severe depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 409–416.
DeRubeis, R. J., Siegle, G. J., & Hollon, S. D. (2008). Cognitive therapy versus medication for depression: Treatment outcomes and neural mechanisms. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9, 788–796.
Desimone, R., & Duncan, J. (1995). Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 18, 193–222.
Donaldson, C., Lam, D., & Mathews, A. (2007). Rumination and attention in major depression. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 45, 2664–2678.
Eimer, M., Holmes, A., & McGlone, F. P. (2003). The role of spatial attention in the processing of facial expression: An ERP study of rapid brain responses to six basic emotions. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 3, 97–110.
Eldara, S., Ricona, T., & Bar-Haim, Y. (2008). Plasticity in attention: Implications for stress response in children. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 46, 450–461.
Evers, E. A., van der Veen, F. M., Jolles, J., Deutz, N. E., & Schmitt, J. A. (2006). Acute tryptophan depletion improves performance and modulates the BOLD response during a Stroop task in healthy females. NeuroImage, 32, 248–255.
Fales, C. L., Barch, D. M., Rundle, M. M., Mintun, M. A., Mathews, J., Snyder, A. Z., & Sheline, Y. I. (2009). Antidepressant treatment normalizes hypoactivity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during emotional interference processing in major depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 112, 206–211.
Fales, C. L., Barch, D. M., Rundle, M. M., Mintun, M. A., Snyder, A. Z., Cohen, J. D., et al. (2008). Altered emotional interference processing in affective and cognitive-control brain circuitry in major depression. Biological Psychiatry, 63, 377–384.
Foa, E. B., Franklin, M. E., & Moser, J. (2002). Context in the clinic: How well do cognitive-behavioral therapies and medications work in combination? Biological Psychiatry, 52, 987–997.
Fox, E., Ridgewell, A., & Ashwin, C. (2009). Looking on the bright side: Biased attention and the human serotonin transporter gene. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276, 1747–1751.
Fox, E., Russo, R., & Georgiou, G. A. (2005). Anxiety modulates the degree of attentive resources required to process emotional faces. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 5, 396–404.
Fu, C. H., Williams, S. C., Cleare, A. J., Brammer, M. J., Walsh, N. D., Kim, J., et al. (2004). Attenuation of the neural response to sad faces in major depression by antidepressant treatment: A prospective, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 61, 877–889.
Furukawa, T. A., Watanabe, N., & Churchill, R. (2007). Combined psychotherapy plus antidepressants for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue l, Art. No. CD004364.
Gilboa-Schechtman, E., Erhard-Weiss, D., & Jeczemien, P. (2002). Interpersonal deficits meet cognitive biases: Memory for facial expressions in depressed and anxious men and women. Psychiatry Research, 113, 279–293.
Gotlib, I. H., Kasch, K. L., Traill, S. K., Joormann, J., Arnow, B. A., & Johnson, S. L. (2004). Coherence and specificity of information processing biases in depression and social phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 386–398.
Gotlib, I. H., Krasnoperova, E., Yue, D. N., & Joormann, J. (2004). Attentional biases for negative interpersonal stimuli in clinical depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 127–135.
Harmer, C. J. (2008). Serotonin and emotional processing: Does it help explain antidepressant drug action? Neuropharmacology, 55, 1023–1028.
Harmer, C. J., Mackay, C. E., Reid, C. B., Cowen, P. J., & Goodwin, G. M. (2006). Antidepressant drug treatment modifies the neural processing of nonconscious threat cues. Biological Psychiatry, 59, 816–820.
Hayward, G., Goodwin, G. M., Cowen, P. J., & Harmer, C. J. (2005). Low-dose tryptophan depletion in recovered depressed patients induces changes in cognitive processing without depressive symptoms. Biological Psychiatry, 57, 517–524.
Hazen, R. A., Vasey, M. W., & Schmidt, N. B. (2008). Attentional retraining: A randomized clinical trial for pathological worry. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 43, 627–633.
Hollon, S. D., Stewart, M. O., & Strunk, D. (2006). Enduring effects for cognitive behavior therapy in the treatment of depression and anxiety. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 285–315.
Joormann, J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2007). Selective attention to emotional faces following recovery from depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 80–85.
Kennedy, S. H., Evans, K. R., Krüger, S., Mayberg, H. S., Meyer, J. H., McCann, S., et al. (2001). Changes in regional brain glucose metabolism measured with positron emission tomography after paroxetine treatment of major depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 899–905.
Kerestes, R., Labuschagne, I., Croft, R. J., O’Neill, B. V., Bhagwagar, Z., Phan, K. L., & Nathan, P. I. (2009). Evidence for modulation of facial emotional processing bias during emotional expression decoding by serotonergic and noradrenergic antidepressants: An event-related potential (ERP) study. Psychopharmacology, 202, 621–634.
Knutson, B., Bhanji, J. P., Cooney, R. E., Atlas, L. Y., & Gotlib, I. H. (2008). Neural responses to monetary incentives in major depression. Biological Psychiatry, 63, 686–692.
Larsen, R. J., Mercer, K. A., & Balota, D. A. (2006). Lexical characteristics of words used in emotional Stroop experiments. Emotion, 6, 62–72.
Leyman, L., De Raedt, R., Schacht, R., & Koster, E. H. (2007). Attentional biases for angry faces in unipolar depression. Psychological Medicine, 37, 393–402.
Li, S., Tan, J., Qian, M., & Liu, X. (2008). Continual training of attentional bias in social anxiety. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 46, 905–912.
MacDonald, A. W., Cohen, J. D., Stenger, V. A., & Carter, C. S. (2000). Dissociating the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex in cognitive control. Science, 288, 1835–1838.
MacLeod, C. M., Campbell, L. W., Rutherford, E., & Wilson, E. (2004). The causal status of anxiety-linked attentional and interpretive bias. In J. Yiend (Ed.), Cognition, emotion and psychopathology: Theoretical, empirical and clinical directions (pp. 172–189). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MacLeod, C. M., Koster, E. H., & Fox, E. (2009). Whither cognitive bias modification research? Commentary on the special section articles. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 89–99.
MacLeod, C. M., Mathews, A., & Tata, P. (1986). Attentional bias in emotional disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 15–20.
MacLeod, C., Rutherford, E., Campbell, L., Ebsworthy, G., & Holker, L. (2002). Selective attention and emotional vulnerability: Assessing the causal basis of their association through the experimental manipulation of attentional bias. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 107–123.
Maser, J. D., & Cloninger, C. R. (1990). Comorbidity of mood and anxiety disorders. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
Mathews, A., & Mackintosh, B. (1998). A cognitive model of selective processing in anxiety. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 22, 539–560.
Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (1985). Selective processing of threat cues in anxiety states. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 23, 563–569.
Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (2002). Induced processing biases have causal effects on anxiety. Cognition & Emotion, 16, 331–354.
Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (2005). Cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 167–195.
Mathews, A., Mogg, K., Kentish, J., & Eysenck, M. (1995). Effect of psychological treatment on cognitive bias in generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 33, 293–303.
Mayberg, H. S., Liotti, M., Brannan, S. K., McGinnis, S., Mahurin, R. K., Jerabek, P. A., et al. (1999). Reciprocal limbic-cortical function and negative mood: Converging PET findings in depression and normal sadness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 675–682.
McRae, K., Hughes, B., Chopra, S., Gabrieli, J. D. E., Gross, J. J., & Ochsner, K. N. (2010). The neural bases of distraction and reappraisal. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 248–262.
Merens, W., Booij, L., Haffmans, P. J., & Van der Does, A. J. W. (2008). The effects of experimentally lowered serotonin function on emotional information processing and memory in remitted depressed patients. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 22, 653–662.
Mineka, S., Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1998). Comorbidity of anxiety and unipolar mood disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 377–412.
Mogg, K., & Bradley, B. P. (1998). A cognitive-motivational analysis of anxiety. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 36, 809–848.
Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., & Williams, R. (1995). Attentional bias in anxiety and depression: The role of awareness. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 34, 17–36.
Munafò, M. R., Freimer, N. B., Ng, W., Ophoff, R., Veijola, J., Miettunen, J., et al. (2009). 5-HTTLPR genotype and anxietyrelated personality traits: A meta-analysis and new data. American Journal of Genetics, 150B, 271–281.
Munafò, M. R., Hayward, G., & Harmer, C. J. (2006). Selective processing of social threat cues following acute tryptophan depletion. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 20, 33–39.
Murphy, S. E., Downham, C., Cowen, P. J., & Harmer, C. J. (2008). Direct effects of diazepam on emotional processing in healthy volunteers. Psychopharmacology, 199, 503–513.
Murphy, S. E., Longhitano, C. L., Ayres, R. E., Cowen, P. J., & Harmer, C. J. (2006). Tryptophan supplementation induces a positive bias in the processing of emotional material in healthy female volunteers. Psychopharmacology, 187, 121–130.
Murphy, S. E., Norbury, R., O’Sullivan, U., Cowen, P. J., & Harmer, C. J. (2009). Effect of a single dose of citalopram on amygdala response to emotional faces. British Journal of Psychiatry, 194, 535–540.
Murphy, S. E., Yiend, J., Lester, K. J., Cowen, P. J., & Harmer, C. J. (2009). Short-term serotonergic but not noradrenergic antidepressant administration reduces attentional vigilance to threat in healthy volunteers. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 12, 169–179.
NICE (2004). Depression: Management of depression in primary and secondary care. London: Author.
NICE (2007). Management of anxiety (panic disorder, with or without agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety disorder) in adults in primary, secondary and community care (amended). London: Author.
Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. C. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231–259.
Norberg, M. M., Krystal, J. H., & Tolin, D. F. (2008). A metaanalysis of D-cycloserine and the facilitation of fear extinction and exposure therapy. Biological Psychiatry, 63, 1118–1126.
Norbury, R., Mackay, C. E., Cowen, P. J., Goodwin, G. M., & Harmer, C. J. (2007). Short-term antidepressant treatment and facial processing: Functional magnetic resonance imaging study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 190, 531–532.
Nutt, D. J. (2002). The neuropharmacology of serotonin and noradrenaline in depression. International Clinical Psychopharmacology, 17(Suppl. 1), S1-S12.
Ochsner, K. N., & Gross, J. J. (2005). The cognitive control of emotion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 242–249.
Pampallona, S., Bollini, P., Tibaldi, G., Kupelnick, B., & Munizza, C. (2004). Combined pharmacotherapy and psychological treatment for depression: A systematic review. Archives of General Psychiatry, 61, 714–719.
Paulus, M. P., Feinstein, J. S., Castillo, G., Simmons, A. N., & Stein, M. B. (2005). Dose-dependent decrease of activation in bilateral amygdala and insula by lorazepam during emotion processing. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 282–288.
Pessoa, L., Padmala, S., & Morland, T. (2005). Fate of unattended fearful faces in the amygdala is determined by both attentional resources and cognitive modulation. NeuroImage, 28, 249–255.
Phan, K. L., Fitzgerald, D. A., Nathan, P. J., Moore, G. J., Uhde, T. W., & Tancer, M. E. (2005). Neural substrates for voluntary suppression of negative affect: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Biological Psychiatry, 57, 210–219.
Pope, H. G. J., Cohane, G. H., Kanayama, G., Siegel, A. J., & Hudson, J. I. (2003). Testosterone gel supplementation for men with refractory depression: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 105–111.
Posner, M. I., & Petersen, S. E. (1990). The attention system of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13, 25–42.
Putman, P., Hermans, E. J., Koppeschaar, H., van Schijndel, A., & van Honk, J. (2007). A single administration of cortisol acutely reduces preconscious attention for fear in anxious young men. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 32, 793–802.
Reilly, J. G., McTavish, S. F., & Young, A. H. (1997). Rapid depletion of plasma tryptophan: A review of studies and experimental methodology. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 11, 381–392.
Ridout, N., Astell, A. J., Reid, I. C., Glen, T., & O’Carroll, R. E. (2003). Memory bias for emotional facial expressions in major depression. Cognition & Emotion, 17, 101–122.
Robinson, O., Cools, R., Crockett, M., & Sahakian, B. (in press). Mood state moderates the role of serotonin in cognitive biases. Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Ruhe, H. G., Mason, N. S., & Schene, A. H. (2007). Mood is indirectly related to serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine levels in humans: A meta-analysis of monoamine depletion studies. Molecular Psychiatry, 12, 331–359.
Schelling, G., Roozendaal, B., & De Quervain, D. J. (2004). Can posttraumatic stress disorder be prevented with glucocorticoids? In R. Yehuda & B. McEwen (Eds.), Biobehavioral stress response: Protective and damaging effects (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 1032, pp. 158–166). New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Schmidt, N. B., Richey, J. A., Buckner, J. D., & Timpano, K. R. (2009). Attention training for generalized social anxiety disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 5–14.
Schneider, F., Weiss, U., Kessler, C., Müller-Gärtner, H. W., Posse, S., Salloum, J. B., et al. (1999). Subcortical correlates of differential classical conditioning of aversive emotional reactions in social phobia. Biological Psychiatry, 45, 863–871.
See, J., MacLeod, C. M., & Bridle, R. (2009). The reduction of anxiety vulnerability through the modification of attentional bias: A realworld study using a home-based cognitive bias modification procedure. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 65–75.
Sheline, Y. I., Barch, D. M., Donnelly, J. M., Ollinger, J. M., Snyder, A. Z., & Mintun, M. A. (2001). Increased amygdala response to masked emotional faces in depressed subjects resolves with antidepressant treatment: An fMRI study. Biological Psychiatry, 50, 651–658.
Shin, L. M., Rauch, S. L., & Pitman, R. K. (2006). Amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and hippocampal function in PTSD. In R. Rehuda (Ed.), Psychobiology of posttraumatic stress disorder: A decade of progress (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 1071, pp. 67–79). New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Shin, L. M., Whalen, P. J., Pitman, R. K., Bush, G., Macklin, M. L., Lasko, N. B., et al. (2001). An fMRI study of anterior cingulate function in posttraumatic stress disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 50, 932–942.
Siegle, G. J., Steinhauer, S. R., Thase, M. E., Stenger, V. A., & Carter, C. S. (2002). Can’t shake that feeling: Event-related fMRI assessment of sustained amygdala activity in response to emotional information in depressed individuals. Biological Psychiatry, 51, 693–707.
Straube, T., Mentzel, H. J.,& Miltner, W. H. (2006). Neural mechanisms of automatic and direct processing of phobogenic stimuli in specific phobia. Biological Psychiatry, 59, 162–170.
Tillfors, M., Furmark, T., Marteinsdottir, I., & Fredrikson, M. (2002). Cerebral blood flow during anticipation of public speaking in social phobia: A PET study. Biological Psychiatry, 52, 1113–1119.
Van der Veen, F. M., Evers, E. A., Deutz, N. E., & Schmitt, J. A. (2007). Effects of acute tryptophan depletion on mood and facial emotion perception related brain activation and performance in healthy women with and without a family history of depression. Neuropsychopharmacology, 32, 216–224.
Van Honk, J., Peper, J. S., & Schutter, D. J. (2005). Testosterone reduces unconscious fear but not consciously experienced anxiety: Implications for the disorders of fear and anxiety. Biological Psychiatry, 58, 218–225.
Vuilleumier, P. (2005). How brains beware: Neural mechanisms of emotional attention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 585–594.
Wadlinger, H. A., & Isaacowitz, D. M. (2008). Looking happy: The experimental manipulation of a positive visual attention bias. Emotion, 8, 121–126.
Wells, T. T., & Beevers, C. G. (in press). Biased attention and dysphoria: Manipulating selective attention reduces subsequent depressive symptoms. Cognition & Emotion. doi:10.1080/02699930802652388
Wilhelm, S., Buhlmann, U., Tolin, D. F., Meunier, S. A., Pearlson, G. D., Reese, H. E., et al. (2008). Augmentation of behavior therapy with D-cycloserine for obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 335–341; quiz, 409.
Williams, J. M. G., Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (1996). The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 3–24.
Williams, J. M. G., Watts, F. N., MacLeod, C. M., & Mathews, A. (1997). Cognitive psychology and emotional disorders. New York: Wiley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
M.B. is supported by a Clinical Training Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust (WT081672MA). E.A.H. is supported by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship and the Economic and Social Research Council (RES-061-23-0030). C.J.H. is supported by the Medical Research Council (G0301005).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Browning, M., Holmes, E.A. & Harmer, C.J. The modification of attentional bias to emotional information: A review of the techniques, mechanisms, and relevance to emotional disorders. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 10, 8–20 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/CABN.10.1.8
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/CABN.10.1.8