# Drug-Specific Global Attentional Bias in Females with Drug Use Disorder: Response Slowing Under Short but Not Long Cue Exposure

## TL;DR

The study found that women with drug use disorder show a general attentional bias toward drug-related cues during brief exposure, but not during longer exposure.

## Contribution

The study reveals a drug-specific global attentional bias in females during short cue exposure, not seen in sustained attention.

## Key findings

- A global attentional bias toward drug-related cues was observed during short (500 ms) cue exposure.
- No attentional bias was found during long (2000 ms) cue exposure or for negative emotional stimuli.
- The bias was not influenced by spatial alignment of the cues.

## Abstract

Background/Objectives: Attentional bias toward drug-related cues is a characteristic of drug dependence and plays a detrimental role during drug withdrawal. The present study examined attentional bias in female individuals with drug dependence. We focused on its temporal and spatial characteristics using drug-related and negative emotion dot-probe tasks. Methods: Fifty-one female participants with drug dependence (mean age = 24.71 ± 7.58 years) took part in the study. These participants were primarily dependent on methamphetamine and novel psychoactive substances. They completed tasks with two cue exposure durations (500 ms and 2000 ms) under three spatial conditions: match, mismatch, and neutral. Results: Results indicated that a global attentional bias toward drug-related cues, rather than a location-specific bias, was evident during the short cue exposure (500 ms), regardless of spatial alignment (ps < 0.05), whereas no bias was observed during the sustained attention stage (2000 ms). No attentional bias was observed for negative emotional stimuli, highlighting the stimulus-specific nature of this effect. Conclusions: These findings further support the incentive sensitization model of addiction, showing that interference from drug-related items, regardless of the specific orientation of attention, primarily drives short cue exposure attentional bias in females.