Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2019 Mar;179:90-102. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.10.011. Epub 2018 Nov 23.
Attention biases toward negative stimuli are implicated in the development and maintenance of depression. However, research is needed to understand how depression affects attention biases as they unfold in a dynamic social environment, particularly during adolescence when depression rates significantly increase due to enhanced reactivity to social stress. To examine attention biases in a live, socially evaluative environment, 26 adolescent girls from the community gave a speech in front of a potentially critical judge and a positive judge while wearing mobile eye tracking glasses. Girls' depressive symptoms were measured using the Moods and Feelings Questionnaire. Across the sample, girls looked at the positive judge more frequently and for longer periods of time compared with the potentially critical judge. In contrast, higher depressive symptoms were associated with looking at the potentially critical judge for longer periods of time. When directly comparing attention to the potentially critical judge relative to the positive judge, dysphoric girls looked at the potentially critical judge more frequently and for longer periods of time compared with the positive judge. Findings suggest that adolescent depressive symptoms are related to sustained attention toward potentially critical evaluation at the exclusion of positive evaluation. This novel approach allowed for an in vivo examination of attention biases as they unfold during social evaluation, which begins to illuminate the interpersonal significance of attention biases. If replicated and extended longitudinally, this research could be used to identify adolescents at high risk for future depression and potentially be leveraged clinically in attention bias modification treatment.
注意对负面刺激的偏向与抑郁的发展和维持有关。然而，需要研究了解抑郁如何影响注意力偏向，因为它们在动态的社会环境中展开，特别是在青少年时期，由于对社会压力的反应增强，抑郁发生率显著增加。为了在现实的、具有社会评价的环境中检查注意力偏向，26 名来自社区的青春期女孩在佩戴移动眼动跟踪眼镜的情况下，在一个潜在的批评家和一个积极的评判面前发表演讲。使用《情绪和感觉问卷》来衡量女孩的抑郁症状。在整个样本中，与潜在的批评家相比，女孩们更频繁地、更长时间地看着积极的评判家。相比之下，更高的抑郁症状与长时间观察潜在的批评家有关。当直接比较对潜在批评家和积极评判家的注意力时，抑郁的女孩与积极评判家相比，更频繁地、更长时间地看着潜在的批评家。研究结果表明，青少年的抑郁症状与对潜在批评性评价的持续关注有关，而忽略了积极评价。这种新方法允许在社会评价过程中实时检查注意力偏向，这开始阐明注意力偏向的人际意义。如果得到复制和纵向扩展，这项研究可以用来识别未来有患抑郁症风险的青少年，并在注意力偏向修正治疗中得到临床应用。
