Prior research has described a distributed neural circuit that is engaged when threats capture attention. This work relies on a task called the dot-probe paradigm, which quantifies the capacity of threat stimuli, such as angry faces, to divert attention during a simple motor task (Figure 1). Biases in the engagement of this circuit are thought to account for the association between clinical anxiety and vigilance toward threat as manifested behav-ioraUy on the dot-probe task. Two key components of this circuit are the amygdala and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC).7 The amygdala is a structure centrally involved in salience detection and stimulus-reinforcement learning. Imaging work with clinically anxious and with behaviorally inhibited subjects has found an amygdala hyper-activity to threat-relevant cues (e.g., angry faces), reflecting the enhanced salience of such cues. Considerable basic science work has delineated the ways in which the amygdala and the vlPFC support orienting attention when individuals confront threats.
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