# The identification of novel biomarkers related to potential and acute threats: Dynamically evolving threat processing and attention bias in youth with anxiety

> **NIH NIH F32** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $65,994

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Childhood anxiety is often debilitating, which is particularly concerning given that longitudinal research suggests
that a child’s functioning continues to decrease from childhood into early adulthood. Anxiety disorders are one
of the most common childhood mental health disorders and lead to subsequent diminished quality of life and an
increased likelihood of developing comorbid conditions. Abnormally elevated threat processing is the crux
of the pathophysiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. While there have been substantial efforts at
understanding the underlying mechanisms of passive threat processing of static threat stimuli, very few studies
have focused on dynamic threat processing of real-life threats which are rarely static; rather, threats are dynamic
and constantly changing over time. Dr. Crowley’s recent research has aimed at bridging this knowledge gap in
the current research. His lab has recently designed a dynamic threat processing game called the “Bomb.” The
Bomb was designed to assess a more ecologically valid profile of neural responses to dynamically evolving
threats among anxious youth. The Bomb is engaging for youth, developmentally sensitive, and calibrated for the
detection of individual differences in dynamic threat processing. The game assesses youths’ processing of
successive, naturally evolving threat contexts: vigilance for potential threats, followed by detection of direct or
indirect acute threats, and an opportunity to reappraise indirect threats that do not require an immediate
response. The overall goal of the current application is to examine the Bomb in anxious and non-anxious
youth utilizing a multi-method approach integrating a number of biophysiological responses and
behavioral reports (i.e., EEG, eye-tracking, pupillometry, behavior, and multi-informant phenotyping). I
aim to establish reliable and valid biomarkers of anxiety in the processing of dynamically evolving
threats, attention bias towards threat, and how these biomarkers relate to one another, and differ among
anxious and non-anxious youth. The study will evaluate the Bomb by assessing 10- to 14-year-olds’
neural responses to dynamically evolving threat contexts, and to begin to unpack successive stages in
a threat processing cascade and attention bias in youth anxiety. It is expected that the Bomb will provide
important and essential insights into biomarkers contributing to the development and acquisition and
maintenance of anxiety disorders. This work was designed to provide future application by informing the design
of novel or personalized interventions for anxiety disorders targeting dynamic threat processing disruptions and
attention bias. This study will deliver quantitative, developmentally informed brain-based biomarkers, for
two key Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) negative valence constructs: Potential Threat and Acute
Threat. The current proposal was constructed to be in line with the NIMH Strategic Plan Strategy 1....

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10231630
- **Project number:** 1F32MH124319-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Peter James Castagna
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $65,994
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-07-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10231630

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10231630, The identification of novel biomarkers related to potential and acute threats: Dynamically evolving threat processing and attention bias in youth with anxiety (1F32MH124319-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10231630. Licensed CC0.

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