The Gut-Brain Axis Shapes Cognitive-Emotional Processing: Evidence for Attentional Avoidance of Bloating Cues in IBS

Abstract

BackgroundIrritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by significant gut-brain interactions and various symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating, and altered bowel habits. Cognitive deficits in IBS have been linked to attentional biases, particularly towards somatic and symptom-related cues. Despite increasing interest in understanding these cognitive processes, the specific patterns of attentional biases and their relationship with anxiety in IBS remain inadequately explored. MethodThis study employed a dot-probe task to compare attentional biases toward somatic (bloating, pain) and social threat cues (angry/disgusted faces) in 15 patients with IBS, 15 individuals with high anxiety (HA), and 15 healthy controls (HC). Participants completed two tasks (Body/Face) with 500 ms stimulus exposure. Attentional bias indices (RT incongruent - RT congruent) were analyzed using mixed-design ANOVAs, controlling for anxiety (STAI) and IBS symptom severity (IBS-SSS). ResultsPatients with IBS exhibited significant avoidance of bloating-related stimuli compared to HC (p =.013), but not pain-related cues. Anxiety modulated attentional processing in IBS (p =.015) and HC (p =.013). HA showed no significant biases. IBS patients demonstrated slower overall reaction times than HC (p=.024), suggesting cognitive load. A positive IBS severity-anxiety correlation was observed in IBS (r = 0.574, p =.020). ConclusionsThe findings demonstrate that IBS is associated with selective avoidance of bloating-related stimuli, driven by a maladaptive interplay between hyper-precise symptom expectations and interoceptive noise--a mechanism distinct from anxiety-related attentional patterns. While anxiety amplifies this avoidance, it does not independently account for the cognitive profile of IBS. These results underscore the gut-brain axis role in shaping cognitive-emotional processing.