A capacidade de controlar a atenção é uma tarefa complexa que demanda diferentes processos mentais. O presente estudo teve como objetivo traduzir e adaptar o Questionário de Controle Atencional para o Brasil. A pesquisa foi realizada com a ajuda de dois painéis multidisciplinares: um formado por profissionais de Psicologia Experimental e Neurociências responsáveis por auxiliar nas adaptações semânticas, e outro de especialistas em Psicologia da Atenção responsáveis por julgar os itens em três aspectos: clareza, coerência e compatibilidade semântica. O Coeficiente de Validade de Conteúdo foi utilizado para avaliar os itens a partir dos escores desses juízes. Dentre os 20 itens, apenas três não se mantiveram acima do critério de 0,80: itens 3, 16 e 20. Os resultados foram discutidos considerando os problemas enfrentados na adaptação do instrumento. Concluiu-se que o Questionário de Controle Atencional foi traduzido adequadamente e apresenta equivalência semântica com seu original estadunidense.

The ability to control attention is a complex task that requires different mental processes. The present study aims to translate and adapt the Attentional Control Scale to Brazil. The research was conducted with the support of two multidisciplinary panels: one formed by Experimental Psychologists and Neuroscientists who were responsible to help throughout the semantic adaptation process, and another one formed by Attention Psychology specialists responsible to judge items in three aspects: comprehensiveness, coherence and semantic compatibility. The Content Validity Coefficient was used to assess items from judges scores. Among 20 items, only three did not hold values above the 0.80 criteria: items 3, 16 and 20. Results were discussed considering the problems faced throughout the adaptation of the instrument. It was concluded that the Attentional Control Scale was adequately translated and it shows semantic equivalency with the American original scale.

Panic disorder involves both recurrent unexpected panic attacks and persistent concern about having additional attacks. Electrical stimulation of the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) is an animal model of both panic attack and panic disorder, whereas contextual fear conditioning represents a model of anticipatory anxiety. Previous research indicated that anxiety has an inhibitory effect on panic attack-like behavior. However, still unclear is the role that anticipatory anxiety plays in panic disorder-like behaviors. This issue was investigated with two lines of animals selectively bred for high (Carioca High-Freezing) and low (Carioca Low-Freezing) freezing in response to contextual cues associated with footshock. The results suggest that although anticipatory anxiety might exert an inhibitory effect on the expression of panic attack, it might also facilitate the pathogenesis of panic disorder.

Electrical or chemical stimulation of the dorsal periaqueductal gray (DPAG) has been accepted as an animal model of panic attacks. This study investigates the influence of anticipatory anxiety in the occurrence of panic-like behavior induced by N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) microinjection into the DPAG of rats. Behavioral (i.e., contextual fear conditioning) and pharmacological (i.e., pentylenetetrazol) manipulations were employed as animal models of anticipatory anxiety. In the first experiment, animals exposed to contextual cues that had been previously associated with electric footshocks through contextual fear conditioning were less likely than non-conditioned control animals to display defensive reactions such as running and jumping in response to microinjection of NMDA (0.3 µl of 15.0 µg/µl) into the DPAG. In the second experiment, rats were injected intraperitoneally with the anxiogenic drug pentylenetetrazol (PTZ, 15 mg/kg) 5 minutes before receiving intra-DPAG microinfusion with the same dose of NMDA as in Experiment 1. Panic-related behaviors were registered in an experimental arena immediately after NMDA microinfusion. As compared with saline pre-treated animals, PTZ significantly attenuated NMDA-induced panic-like reactions. These results further demonstrate the usefulness of DPAG chemical stimulation as an animal model of panic attacks and suggest that behavioral and pharmacological activation of the brain mechanisms underlying anticipatory anxiety might exert an antipanic-like effect.