Depression-related difficulties disengaging from negative faces are associated with sustained attention to negative feedback during social evaluation and predict stress recovery

Abstract

The present study aimed to clarify: 1) the presence of depression-related attention bias related to a social stressor, 2) its association with depression-related attention biases as measured under standard conditions, and 3) their association with impaired stress recovery in depression. A sample of 39 participants reporting a broad range of depression levels completed a standard eye-tracking paradigm in which they had to engage/disengage their gaze with/from emotional faces. Participants then underwent a stress induction (i.e., giving a speech), in which their eye movements to false emotional feedback were measured, and stress reactivity and recovery were assessed. Depression level was associated with longer times to engage/disengage attention with/from negative faces under standard conditions and with sustained attention to negative feedback during the speech. These depression-related biases were associated and mediated the association between depression level and self-reported stress recovery, predicting lower recovery from stress after giving the speech.

Inverse effects of tDCS over the left versus right DLPC on emotional processing: A pupillometry study

“…The data show a difference in dilation due to real versus placebo stimulation, denoting an adjustment in sympathetic nervous system in response to tDCS. Prior studies using excitatory NIBS over the right DLPFC showed adverse effects on emotional attention (e.g., increased attention towards negative stimuli, reduced attentional control over emotional information; [14,41,[58][59][60]), which in turn is suggested to contribute to maladaptive emotion regulatory processes [42,61]. These findings would be consistent with the notion that excitatory right DLPFC stimulation contributes to decreased cognitive resource allocation to process emotional information, impeding individuals' capacity to engage in emotion regulatory processes.…”

Identification of emotions in mixed disgusted-happy faces as a function of depressive symptom severity

“…Supporting this assumption, depressed compared to healthy individuals are characterized by a reduced attention processing of positive social signals, such as others' happy faces (Armstrong & Olatunji, 2012), and conversely by an increased attention processing of negative social signals, such as others' sad and disgusted faces (Armstrong & Olatunji, 2012;Sanchez, Vazquez, Marker, LeMoult, & Joormann, 2013;Sanchez, Romero & De Raedt, 2017). These attentional biases have been shown to contribute to inefficient behavioral and emotional regulation during social interactions (Sanchez et al, 2017).…”

“…These attentional biases have been shown to contribute to inefficient behavioral and emotional regulation during social interactions (Sanchez et al, 2017).…”

“…We focused on the emotion of disgust, as current research points out a great perception of social threat for disgust faces (e.g., Amir et al, 2005). Furthermore, recent findings indicate a depression-related bias in attention processing of disgusted over happy faces during the confrontation of social interactions (Sanchez et al, 2017). A sample of individuals reporting a broad range of depression severity levels performed a task where they had to rate the emotions depicted in pictures representing clearly prototypical facial expressions of disgust and happiness, as well as in pictures representing morphed facial expressions of both emotions.…”

Attentional biases in depression: Relation to disorder severity, rumination, and anhedonia

“…In fact, it is an absence of the protective bias usually observed in healthy subjects. Although preliminary data suggest a slower engagement with positive stimuli in depressed participants compared to non-depressed participants [11], the very nature of the attentional components involved in anhedonic bias remains poorly understood.…”