A naturalistic visual scanning approach to assess selective attention in major depressive disorder

Eizenman, Moshe; Yu, Lawrence H.; Grupp, Larry A.; Eizenman, Erez; Ellenbogen, Mark A.; Gemar, Michael; Levitan, Robert D.

doi:10.1016/s0165-1781(03)00068-4

Cited by 230 publications

(174 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…On the one hand, similarly to MDD patients (Kellough et al, 2008;Leyman et al, 2011;Sears et al, 2010Sears et al, , 2011Ellis et al, 2011), BD patients in the depressive phase paid less attention to the happy images than the control group, as deduced from the fixation time and the fixation frequency found for these images. On the other hand, although BD patients in the depressive phase paid more attention to sad images than the healthy controls in percent of fixations (27% versus 25%, respectively), this difference did not reach statistical significance-this difference was significant in previous eye-tracking studies in individuals with MDD (Eizenman et al, 2003;Kellough et al, 2008). Thus, an "anhedonic bias" was the most salient disturbance in bipolar depression.…”

Section: Stimulus Category Number Of Fixations (% Of Total)mentioning

confidence: 66%

“…Two of the above-cited studies also found that depressed individuals paid more attention to sad stimuli relative to healthy controls (Eizenman et al, 2003;Kellough et al, 2008). However, no study found differences in the eye-gaze patterns related to threatening stimuli between depressed and non-depressed individuals (Armstrong and Olatunji, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Of particular relevance here is the free-viewing task, in which participants are required to focus on a central fixation point, and then asked to scan/re-scan several stimuli (2-4 stimuli, e.g., images, faces, or words) presented simultaneously, depicting differing valences (happy, sad, threat or neutral) for around 10-30 s. A number of studies assessed the maintenance of attention over the entire trial (e.g., by measuring the total fixation time on each image; see Eizenman et al, 2003;Kellough et al, 2008;Leyman et al, 2011;Sears et al, 2010Sears et al, , 2011Ellis et al, 2011). Depressed individuals attended less to happy stimuli than nondepressed individuals (i.e., an "anhedonic bias" was found; Kellough et al, 2008;Leyman et al, 2011;Sears et al, 2010Sears et al, , 2011Ellis et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Attentional biases toward emotional images in the different episodes of bipolar disorder: An eye-tracking study

García‐Blanco¹,

Salmerón²,

Perea³

et al. 2014

Psychiatry Research

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a b s t r a c tAttentional biases toward emotional information may represent vulnerability and maintenance factors in bipolar disorder (BD). The present experimental study examined the processing of emotional information in BD patients using the eye-tracking technology. Bipolar patients in their different states (euthymia, mania, depression) simultaneously viewed four pictures with different emotional valence (happy, neutral, sad, threatening) for 20 s while their eye movements were monitored. A group of healthy individuals served as the control. The data revealed the following: (i) a decrease in attention to happy images in BD patients in their depressive episodes compared to healthy individuals, and (ii) an increase in attention to threatening images in BD patients (regardless of their episode) relative to the healthy controls. These biases appeared in the late stages of information processing and were sustained over the 20 s interval. Thus, the present findings reveal that attentional biases toward emotional information can be a key feature of BD, in that: (i) an anhedonic lack of sensitivity to positive stimuli during the bipolar depressive episode may be considered a maintaining factor of this clinical state, and (ii) the trait-bias toward threat, even in asymptomatic patients, may reflect a marker of vulnerability in BD.

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Section: Stimulus Category Number Of Fixations (% Of Total)mentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Attentional biases toward emotional images in the different episodes of bipolar disorder: An eye-tracking study

García‐Blanco¹,

Salmerón²,

Perea³

et al. 2014

Psychiatry Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Dysphoric and nondysphoric participants completed a naturalistic visual scanning task (Eizenman et al, 2003) in which gaze behavior was monitored while viewing a series of slides depicting dysphoric, aversive, neutral, and positive words. This task was followed by an incidental recognition task for the displayed words.…”

Section: Combined Cognitive Bias Hypothesis In Depression 16mentioning

confidence: 99%

The combined cognitive bias hypothesis in depression

Everaert

Koster

Derakshan

2012

Clinical Psychology Review

270

179

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Drawing from substantial evidence demonstrating cognitive biases in depression at various stages of information processing (i.e., attention, interpretation, memory, cognitive control), we argue for an approach that considers the interplay among these processes. This paper attempts to apply the combined cognitive bias hypothesis (Hirsch, Mathews, & Clark, 2006) to depression research and reviews competing theoretical frameworks that have guided research in this area. We draw on current findings from behavioral studies on the interplay between depression-related processing biases. These data indicate that various cognitive biases are associated. However, it is not clear whether single or multiple biases are most predictive of depressive symptoms. We conclude this article with theoretical and clinical implications of the current state of research in this field and propose a number of ways in which research on the combined cognitive bias hypothesis can be advanced. A State-of-the-art Major depression is a prevalent psychiatric disorder that is associated with debilitating symptomatic suffering, functional impairments, and high societal costs (Kessler & Wang, 2009). Notwithstanding a range of well-established psychological and pharmacological interventions, relapse and recurrence rates of depression remain high (Vittengl, Clark, Dunn, & Jarrett, 2007) indicating that current therapies do not sufficiently address vulnerability factors for this burdensome disorder. Moreover, with each successive depressive episode the risk for recurrence increases (Boland & Keller, 2009), which points to an expanding vulnerability with multiple episodes. Hence, profound insight into the mechanisms involved in the etiology and maintenance of major depression seems essential in improving contemporary treatment options and the prevention of depression.In the past three decades, research inspired by cognitive accounts of depression has been successful in identifying vulnerability factors for this disorder. Apart from substantial research examining depressive cognitive content as a vulnerability factor (e.g., negative thoughts), a promising line of research highlights the role of cognitive biases in the development, maintenance, and relapse/recurrence of depression (for reviews see Mathews & MacLeod, 2005). Research efforts in this particular area of interest have typically focused on abnormalities in attention, interpretation, and memory processes, which are considered to be instrumental in the understanding of the processes involved in these cognitive biases. More recently, there is growing interest into cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control impairments, which may operate across a variety of cognitive biases. Indeed a substantial number of studies on emotional information processing in depressed samples provide evidence that depression is characterized by attention, interpretation, and memory biases, especially for negative information (see below). COMBINED COGNITIVE BIAS HYPOTHESIS IN DEPRESSION 4This resea...

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“…This suggests that resources towards initial cognitive processing may be smaller, but once a stimulus is engaged, deeper processing occurs (Siegle, Granholm, Ingram, & Matt, 2001). Furthermore, when the negative stimulus is presented for longer, the effect of pupil diameter is significantly larger with depressed individuals than with anxious individuals (Eizenman et al, 2003). However, with depressed individuals, this effect can only be found for negatively valenced stimuli.…”

Section: Eye Tracking and The Measurement Of Pupil Dilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Attentional Blink Paradigm in Individuals with High and Low Levels of Depression and Anxiety

Skinner

Ferguson

2014

Journal of European Psychology Students

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The attentional biases of individuals with high and low levels of depression and anxiety were tested using the Attentional Blink paradigm. A rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task was used to detect biases in identification of emotionally valenced target images. The independent variables were depression, anxiety, lag of target stimulus, and emotional valence of target images. The dependent variables were accuracy, reaction times, and pupil dilation. As predicted, attentional biases were found for symptoms of both depression and anxiety, independently and co-morbidly, for dependent variables. The data suggest that there are both differences and similarities in the effects of symptoms of anxiety and depression on attentional biases around emotional stimuli.

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A naturalistic visual scanning approach to assess selective attention in major depressive disorder

Cited by 230 publications

References 24 publications

Attentional biases toward emotional images in the different episodes of bipolar disorder: An eye-tracking study

Attentional biases toward emotional images in the different episodes of bipolar disorder: An eye-tracking study

The combined cognitive bias hypothesis in depression

The Attentional Blink Paradigm in Individuals with High and Low Levels of Depression and Anxiety

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