# The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on ERP Markers of Attentional Bias in Anxiety

> **NIH NIH F31** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $19,091

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
In the past year, an estimated 19.1% of adults aged 18 or older in the United States had an anxiety disorder,
and an estimated 31.1% of U.S. adults experience any anxiety disorder sometime in their lives. As of 2010,
anxiety disorders were the fifth leading cause of years lived with disability. Anxiety disorders are associated
with attentional bias to threat, which refers to differential attentional allocation towards threatening stimuli
relative to neutral stimuli. Anxious individuals direct their attention toward threat during early, automatic stages
of processing, whereas during later, more strategic stages of processing, they tend to direct their attention
away from threat. Attentional bias may prolong anxiety states by placing inordinate priority on potential threats
in the environment, thus intensifying anxious mood states. In a dot-probe (DP) paradigm, individuals with social
anxiety disorder display enhanced P1 amplitudes to angry–neutral versus happy–neutral face pairs, suggesting
early hypervigilance to angry faces, and decreased P1 amplitudes to probes replacing emotional (angry and
happy) versus neutral faces, suggesting reduced visual processing of emotionally salient locations at later
stages of information processing—potentially a manifestation of attentional avoidance. Meditation practice has
been proposed to improve the control of attention by improving efficiency of engagement and disengagement
processes, thereby reducing bias of attention. In preliminary work using a DP task with fibromyalgia patients, a
mindfulness intervention reduced avoidance of pain-related threat at early levels of processing and facilitated
disengagement from threat at later stages of processing. Building on these encouraging findings, the current
application wishes to investigate whether Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) can modify P1 threat-
related attentional bias markers in a DP task in patients with clinical levels of anxiety, and whether MBCT-
induced modification of P1 markers account for treatment gains. The proposed research is designed (1) to
determine whether an 8-week MBCT modifies P1 threat-related attentional bias markers in anxious patients,
and (2) to investigate the relationship between P1 threat-related attentional bias markers, acute treatment
response and durability. Forty-two individuals with moderate to high levels of trait anxiety will be recruited from
an ongoing trial of open-label MBCT at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine (OCIM) using the State-Trait
Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Before and after intervention, P1 marker amplitudes to cues and probes in the DP
task will be monitored. Anxiety symptom levels will be evaluated using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale
(DASS) as the primary outcome along with secondary evaluation by the STAI and the Clinical Global
Impression (CGI) Scale. Treatment durability will also be assessed with the DASS, STAI, and CGI six months
after MBCT intervention. ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10089413
- **Project number:** 5F31AT010299-03
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Resh S. Gupta
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $19,091
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-01 → 2021-08-13

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10089413

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10089413, The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on ERP Markers of Attentional Bias in Anxiety (5F31AT010299-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10089413. Licensed CC0.

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