An experimental investigation of hypervigilance for threat in children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder

Background. The present study examined biases in visual attention for emotional material in children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and healthy controls. Methods. The participants carried out an attentional deployment task in which probe detection latency data were used to determine the distribution of visual attention for threat-related and depression-related material. Results. The results showed that children and adolescents with PTSD, relative to controls, selectively allocated processing resources towards socially threatening stimuli and away from depression-related stimuli. This attentional avoidance of depression-related information in the PTSD participants declined with age. Conclusions. The results of the study an interpreted as a consolidation and extension of previous research on attentional bias and emotional disorder in younger participants.