Gaze-fixation and pupil dilation in the processing of emotional faces: The role of rumination

Abstract

Sustained attentional processing of negative information plays a significant role in the development and maintenance of depression. The present study examines the relationships between rumination, a relevant factor in information processing in depression, and the attentional mechanisms activated in individuals with different levels of depression severity when attending to emotional information (i.e., sad, angry and happy faces). Behavioural and physiological indicators of sustained processing were assessed in 126 participants (39 dysphoric and 87 non-dysphoric) using eye-tracking technology. Pupil dilation and total time attending to negative faces were correlated with a global ruminative style in the total sample once depression severity was controlled. Furthermore, in dysphoric participants the brooding component of rumination was specifically associated with the total time attending to sad faces. Finally, bootstrapping analyses showed that the relationships between global rumination and pupil diameter to emotional faces were accounted by total time attending to emotional faces, specifically for participants reporting lower levels of depression severity. The results support the idea that sustained processing of negative information is associated with a higher ruminative style and indicate differential associations between these factors at different levels of depressive symptomatology.

Mapping the interplay among cognitive biases, emotion regulation, and depressive symptoms

“…To date, few studies have examined relations between cognitive biases and ER processes in depression. Research in (sub)clinically depressed samples has revealed that higher brooding levels are related to negative biases in both attention (Duque, Sanchez, & Vazquez, 2014;Joormann, Dkane, & Gotlib, 2006) and interpretation (Mor, Hertel, Ngo, Shachar, & Redak, 2014). Unfortunately, research linking depression-related cognitive biases to reappraisal is lacking.…”

The regulation of positive and negative social feedback: A psychophysiological study

“…A fixation was defined as a condition in which the eye remained stationary on a predetermined AOI (evaluator, self, or text) for a time interval of 100 ms or more (Wadlinger & Isaacowitz, 2008). In line with recent research, the following dependent variables were calculated (e.g., Duque et al, 2014): (1) Fixation frequency-The number of times a participant directs (redirects) attention to a particular AOI, and is an index of participant's scanning pattern and attentional shifts. (2) Fixation time (or dwell time)-This is the total duration (in ms) a participant has fixated within the boundaries of a particular AOI during a particular social feedback (positive or negative), independent of attentional shifts (e.g., number of fixations).…”

“…We expect depressive brooding, a maladaptive form of emotion regulation, to be inversely correlated to HRV -controlled for the tonic HRV at baselineduring the social feedback (Woody et al, 2014;Pieper et al, 2007). Because rumination has been found to be positively associated with gaze fixation and pupil dilation in the processing of emotional material (e.g., Duque, Sanchez, & Vazquez, 2014), we will also explore the association between depressive brooding and both of these latter physiological indices.…”

Depressed adolescents' pupillary response to peer acceptance and rejection: The role of rumination

“…Task evokedpupillary responses are a temporally sensitive physiological index that is ideal for assessing emotional reactivity and sustained cognitive processes. [36] and sustained processing also mostly in reaction to negative stimuli [37,38]. These initial adult vs. adolescent findings appear to conflict, since depressed adolescents as a group display diminished sustained pupillary response when compared to healthy youth [34,35].…”