AB084. Sexual anxiety correlate to visual attention bias in sex situation: an eye-tracking study

Background: Eye-tracking may aid in understanding the cognitive processes involved in processing sexually appetitive material. The aim of this study was to examine the correlation of visual attention to sexual stimuli and personal sexual anxiety (SA).

Methods: Nineteen heterosexual adults completed Sexual Anxiety Scale questionnaire and an eye-tracking task used free-viewing paradigm, participants were presented with a couple array composed of sexual interaction for 30 trials, recorded throughout the trial to assess the attention processing.

Results: Higher level of SA for “Sexual Communication” had initial orienting bias and higher fixation probability for faces in hardcore stimuli, but did not exhibit in soft-core and neutral stimuli. No correlation was found for “Solitary and Impersonal Sexual Expression” and “Exposure to Information”.

Conclusions: The present findings suggest that, sexual communicate anxious individuals are characterized by enhanced engagement with sexual threat at an early stage of processing and difficulty in disengaging from emotional clues once their initial attention is located on it.

Keywords: Sexual anxiety (SA); eye tracking; attention