Attentional Control Moderates Fearful Responding to a 35% CO2 Challenge

Attentional control (AC) is an individual difference variable indexing the ability to voluntarily focus attention and shift attention when desired. AC is thought to impact the experience of fear by facilitating the disengagement of attention from threat and promoting the deployment of attentional resources toward regulatory or coping strategies. Whereas previous research has focused on visual threat cues, in the current study we examined whether this model also applies to interoceptive threat by evaluating the extent to which individual differences in AC moderated the relationship between trait anxiety and self-reported fear in response to a single vital capacity inhalation of a 35% CO2, 65% balanced O2 gas mixture. The sample comprised a large nonclinical group of young adults (N = 128). Results indicated that AC moderated the relationship between trait anxiety and fearful responding to the challenge. Findings suggest that AC plays a significant and clinically important role in modulating self-reported fear.

► Attentional Control (AC) indexes the ability to voluntarily orient attention. ► AC may facilitate disengagement from threat. ► Self-reported distress is moderated by AC.