The Effects Of A Visual Search Attentional Bias Training On Emotional Expressions Attentional Bias In Drug Abstinents

Objective:To explore attentional bias on emotional expressions and effects of visual search paradigm on the bias in new type drug abstinents(abstinent methamphetamin abusers).Methods:55 male abstinent methamphetamin abusers(AMs)and 30 healthy controls(HCs)engaged in experiment 1.4 types(happy&sad&disgust&neutral)of high intensity Chinese emotional expression pictures were randomly chose from BU-3DFE data base.We wrote a dot probe task by Eprime program to explore the difference of varied emotional faces on two sides detection symbol among AMs and they also need to complete PANAS.In experiment 2,we chose 50 AMs in experiment 1 and one happy face and 15 negative faces(disgust&sad)from CFAPS.To discuss the effects of visual search training on emotional stimulus attentional bias and different effects of two training times,meanwhile,assessing PANAS and Relapse Tendency Scales.Results:Results of experiment 1 showed that in the condition of four emotion faces(happy&sad&disgust&neutral),AMs' bias indices on happy face were significantly lower than HCs',F=4.844,p<0.05,but significantly higher than HCs' bias indices on sad faces,F=4.544,p<0.05;moreover,in PANAS,AMs' PA scores were significantly lower than HCs',t(81)=-2.021,p<0.05,and NA scores were significantly higher than HCs',t(81)=4.153,p<0.01.Experiment 2 revealed after training once a day,totally 4 times,the training group(n=12)existed significantly difference between baseline and post training on happy faces than control group,F=8.947,p<0.01,while there were no differences between baseline and post training on sad faces,disgust faces,the PANAS and the Relapse Tendency Scales in both groups,p>0.05.Another group(n=12)were trained once a week,totally 8 times,their bias dices on happy faces significantly increased,F=5.406,p<0.029,but decreased a lot on sad faces,F=5.190,p<0.05;the NA subscale of the PANAS decreased in two groups at post training session,F=5.214,p<0.05,however,scores of the Relapse Tendency Scales did not differ between baseline and post training,p>0.05.Conclusion:1)Abstinent methamphetamin abusers existed attentional bias on negative emotion expressions and negative affect;2)The visual search training paradigm could improve the attention of AMs on positive emotion faces and with the training times increased,the attentional bias on sad faces in AMs became weaker.