Assessing Visual Processing in High Anxiety

Overview

High trait anxiety, a stable personality trait, is a risk factor for psychiatric disorders. Individuals with high trait anxiety have difficulty differentiating safety from threat, including visual information like emotional faces. This study aims to characterize visual system function in high trait anxiety. A portion of this study involves an intervention. For the intervention portion, a subset of participants will be asked to return for a lab visit upon completing the first portion of the study (multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan). During this follow up visit, participants will complete a computer task that involves looking at faces and identifying emotions. Participants will complete this task either six months or twelve months after their MRI scan visit. Results from this research have the potential to inform novel therapies that target the visual system in individuals at risk for the development of psychiatric disorders.

The purpose of this study is to understand how people with anxious personalities process emotional facial expressions. The intervention portion of this study is part of a larger study. The first portion of this study consists of a screening visit with questionnaires, and a second visit with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan and short computer tasks. For the intervention portion of this study, a subset of participants will return to the lab for an in-person visit either six or twelve months after their MRI scan. This visit will last approximately two hours. Participants will be asked to complete a computer task where they will be asked to identify emotional face expressions and receive feedback on their performance. They will also complete questionnaires about their mood and emotions. The primary purpose of this research is to gather scientific information about how people with anxiety process social and emotional information.