Project: Effects of anticipatory anxiety on attention control: an integrated psychophysiological approach

2013-10-01 – 2017-09-30

Abstract

Anxiety is a powerful motivational drive, with substantial impact on attention allocation strategies and processes. Both the scientific literature and the clinical practice suggest that different types of anxiety (e.g., social anxiety vs. specific phobias) might differentially influence attention. As a consequence, perception can be changed in different, and sometimes opposite, ways. In this project we investigate the effects of different types of anxiety on the brain mechanisms controlling attention and sensory processing.