Freya Arnold

(she/her)

BSc (Psychology)

Research

I am interested in understanding how early attentional biases may contribute risk for developing anxiety disorders.

Through using a range of developmental research methods, such as eye-tracking, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, observations and questionnaires, I seek to understand how biological and environmental risk factors for anxiety may interact to shape the development of attention biases associated with later anxiety.

My interest in this topic grew as I collaborated with researchers at Northwestern University to complete my undergraduate research project exploring associations between infant irritability, materal anxiety and attention biases towards threat in 24 month olds.

Thesis

Emergence and sequalae of attention biases towards threat

Background:

Clinical anxiety affects around 20% of individuals during their lifetime (Burris et al., 2019). The tendency to focus more on threatening rather than non-threatening stimuli, known as attention bias towards threat, has been linked to the onset and persistence of anxiety in both children and adults (Bar-Haim et al., 2007; Suway et al., 2013). This bias appears early in infancy (Peltola et al., 2013) and continues into early childhood (Nakagawa & Sukigara, 2012), yet little is known about the social and cognitive factors driving this behaviour.

Project Aims:

• Investigate the relations between individual difference factors and attention bias towards threat over the first three years of life;
• Identify the neural mechanisms underlying attentional engagement with and disengagement from threat; 
• Explore different developmental paths of attention bias, particularly those that increase the risk of developing anxiety.
  

Implications:

The research findings will improve understanding of how attention bias towards threat and its underlying brain processes might lead to anxiety, contributing to a growing literature that aims to significantly improve early detection of children at risk for anxiety disorders. This knowledge can support the development of early intervention strategies to reduce the long-term impact of anxiety disorders in children.

Funding sources

The Welsh Graduate School for the Social Sciences (WGSSS) | ESRC

Biography

Supervisors

Ross Vanderwert

Senior Lecturer