Mental arithmetic was selected as a control condition to contrast with the worry condition because both involve high cognitive load and at least mild emotional stress but only worry has been theoretically linked to vigilance for threat [18].
It is also the case that the VTNg have been linked to vigilance states (Bassant and Poindessous-Jazat, 2001), and so might additionally modulate hippocampal activity.
Specifically, NA should be linked to increased vigilance for health threats and social inhibitions to avoiding social contact.
Prior research has often linked anxiety to attentional vigilance for threat using the dot probe task, which presents probes in spatial locations that were or were not preceded by a putative threat stimulus.
Structural equations modeling yielded support for a model in which neuroticism was indeed associated with pain catastrophizing, which in turn was linked to heightened levels of vigilance to pain.
In the past, this phenomenon could have been adaptive because it could eventually lead to increased predation by felines; today, this decrease in vigilance is predominately linked to higher levels of car accidents in infected individuals (Flegr et al. 2002; Yereli et al. 2006; Kocazeybek et al. 2009).
Hamilton (1971) tried to link within-group variation in predator vigilance to spatial positions within the group.
To our knowledge, no direct evidence for a causal link between social vigilance and socio-spatial group structure is available.
Additionally, it mediates vigilance and arousal and had also been linked with self-reflection, accounting for the tendency of depressed individuals to withdraw from their external environments and focus attention inward [ 46].
As well documented, daytime sleepiness was linked to several severe consequences, such as unstable and unreliable alertness and vigilance, poor cognitive capabilities, increased risk of making errors, and an increased risk of accidents [ 42– 42].
