Increasing Psychological Resilience in Combat Soldiers Applying Advanced Eye-Tracking-Based Attention Bias Modification

Tel Aviv University

Status: Completed

Conditions: PTSD; Depression; Anxiety Disorders

Treatments: Behavioral: Attention Bias Modification; Behavioral: Neutral Control; Behavioral: Gaze-Contingent Feedback Training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05294848

TAU-GCFTresilience

Details and patient eligibility

About

Military service in combat units entails exposure to traumatic events that require mental adjustment. To develop and efficiently apply attention bias modification interventions aimed at enhancing soldiers' mental resilience, it is essential to test the efficiency of such training programs in RCTs. The purpose of the current study is to examine the efficiency of a new attention eye-tracking-based training protocol, in comparison to an RT-based training protocol, and to a control group, in reducing risk for post-trauma symptoms in combat deployed soldiers.

Full description

Following the explanation to participants regarding the study process, those who give written consent to participate will be randomly placed into one of three groups: GCFT (N=180), ABMT (N=180), and a neutral control group - RT-based task (N=180). The study will include 3 measurement points: before attention training (in basic training before deployment), after attention training (in basic training camp, still before deployment), and after a combat deployment cycle (6-12 months - to be determined based on the military deployment mission of the participants). In each measurement point, the participants will complete computerized tasks to measure attention and will complete self-report questionnaires.

Enrollment: 501 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Each soldier from the allocated cohort who gives written consent will be able to participate in the study.

Exclusion criteria

• Hebrew proficiency is insufficient to complete the study questionnaires.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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501 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

Gaze-Contingent Feedback Training (toward threat)

Experimental group

Description:

In the task, 30 different matrices, each consisting of 16 faces, will be presented. Each matrix includes 8 angry faces and 8 neutral, 8 women and 8 men, and the locations are counterbalanced between matrices. The participants are asked to view the matrices in any way they choose, and the eye-tracking camera records their viewing location relative to the stimuli presented on the screen. At the beginning of each training session, the soldier will choose to which music he would like to listen during the 12-minute session from a diverse list of music. After calibrating the eye-tracker, the participant will be instructed to view matrices of faces as he chooses, as described above in the assessment task. The music chosen by the participant will play only when he is looking at threatening faces and it will stop when he looks at neutral faces. Thus, a change in viewing patterns is expected by implementing operant conditioning principles.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Gaze-Contingent Feedback Training

RT-Based Attention Bias Modification (toward threat)

Active Comparator group

Description:

A dot-probe task of 160 trials. Trials begins with a fixation cross (+), on which the participant is asked to focus (500ms). Then two face stimuli (one angry one neutral) are presented above and below the fixation cross (500ms). After the stimuli disappear, a target probe (right- or left-pointing arrowhead) appears in place of one of the face stimuli. The participant is asked to indicate which target probe was presented using a predetermined key. The target probe will remain on the screen until response, after which a new trial will begin. Participants are instructed to identify the probe type as quickly and accurately as possible. In the training task, all of the target probes will appear in the threat location (angry face). Thus, over multiple trials, learning is expected to occurs such that the threatening face predicts the location of the target probe, thereby achieving the desired change in attention pattern.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Attention Bias Modification

Neutral Control

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

This condition is also based on the dot-probe task (see Active Comparator) with a fundamental difference. In this task, only neutral faces will be displayed, and therefore, while participants are exposed to the same task parameters, there will be no attention training and there will be no exposure to threat stimuli.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Neutral Control