This study investigated gender differences in two key processes involved in anxiety, arousal and attentional bias towards threat. Arousal was assessed using salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), a biomarker of noradrenergic arousal and attention bias using a dot-probe task. Twenty-nine women and 27 men completed the dot-probe task and provided saliva samples before and after a stress induction [cold pressor stress (CPS) test]. Women displayed a significant increase in arousal (sAA) following the stressor compared to men, who displayed a significant reduction in arousal. Reaction time data revealed a significant avoidance of threat in women at baseline, but a significant change to an attention bias towards threat following the stressor. Men did not significantly respond to the stressor in terms of attentional bias. These findings suggest that women are more reactive to a stressor than men, and display an initial avoidance response to threat, but an attentional bias towards threat following stress.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	attention bias, dot probe, arousal, salivary alpha-amylase, noradrenaline, gender differences
Research Division:	Psychology
Research Group:	Biological psychology
Research Field:	Behavioural neuroscience
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Clinical health
Objective Field:	Clinical health not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Carr, AR (Associate Professor Andrea Carr)
UTAS Author:	Felmingham, KL (Professor Kim Felmingham)
ID Code:	97591
Year Published:	2015
Web of Science® Times Cited:	16
Deposited By:	Psychology
Deposited On:	2014-12-24
Last Modified:	2017-11-03
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