A scoping review of evidence of the association between attentional processes and uncertainty in mental health disorders

Uncertainty is an expected feature of everyday life, however maladaptive responses to uncertainty are increasingly recognised as a transdiagnostic feature across many mental health conditions. An important consideration is how we prioritise and gather information about uncertain stimuli or situations (Gottlieb, 2023), where attention serves as a primary gateway for this process. In particular, it has been queried whether, and to what extent, attentional prioritisation or neglect of uncertainty is associated with risk for psychopathology (Gottlieb, 2023; Pearson et al., 2024). One possibility is that attentional bias to uncertainty represents a mechanism involved in the intolerance of uncertainty (IU), which is recognised as a general vulnerability factor and maintaining factor across different psychiatric disorders (Bottesi et al., 2020 ; Shihata et al., 2016). This paper will review evidence for relationships between attentional bias to uncertainty and psychopathology.