Anxiety and threat-related attentional biases in adolescents with fragile X syndrome.
B L Kelleher, A L Hogan, J Ezell and 4 others
PMID 32020687WHAT IT FOUND
In 21 adolescent males with fragile X, anxiety was not linked to bias toward 100% fear faces.
On 25% fear faces, age-related change differed: anxiety group showed less bias with age, non-anxiety group showed more.
Key findings
01Across the sample, initial looking favored full-intensity fearful faces but not partial-intensity fearful faces.
02Anxiety was not associated with fear bias on full-intensity trials.
03On partial-intensity trials, age changed the anxiety-fear bias link: the anxiety group's fear bias marginally decreased 1.41 percentage points per year, and the non-anxiety group's fear bias increased 2.17 percentage points per year.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample was small, with 21 males, and the regression model was powered to detect large effects only. Six additional participants were excluded before analysis because they did not comply or did not complete enough valid trials. The study included only males with fragile X syndrome, ages 15 to 20 years, and it did not test females or other age groups. The sample was predominantly White, 95%, and 85% of mothers reported post-high school education. Small samples can produce unstable or inflated estimates in regression models.
Declared interests
The authors reported no conflict of interest or financial disclosures.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that eye tracking can diagnose or monitor anxiety in fragile X syndrome. The anxiety-fear bias link was absent for 100% fear faces, only age-dependent for 25% fear faces, and the sample was small.