Yang Qian, Fu Yanyan, Yang Qiuli, Yin Dongqing, Zhao Yanan, Wang Hao, Zhang Han, Sun Yanran, Xie Xinyi, Du Jian
Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Front Neurosci. 2024 Nov 13;18:1482849. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1482849. eCollection 2024.
Depression is a complex affective disorder characterized by high prevalence and severe impact, commonly presenting with cognitive impairment. The objective diagnosis of depression lacks precise standards. This study investigates eye movement characteristics during emotional face recognition task (EFRT) in depressive patients to provide empirical support for objective diagnosis.
We recruited 43 patients with depression (Depressive patients, DP) from a psychiatric hospital and 44 healthy participants (Healthy Control, HC) online. All participants completed an EFRT comprising 120 trials. Each trial presented a gray screen for 800 ms followed by a stimulus image for judgment. Emotions were categorized as positive, neutral, or negative. Eye movement trajectories were recorded throughout the task. Latency of First Fixation (LFF), Latency of First Fixation for Eye AOI, and Latency of First Fixation for Mouth AOI were used as representative indicators of early attention, Proportion of Eye AOI, and Proportion of Mouth AOI as measures of intermediate attention, Accuracy (ACC) and Reaction Time (RT) as behavioral indicators of late-stage attention. In this study, these metrics were employed to explore the differences between patients with depression and healthy individuals.
Compared to healthy participants, individuals with depression exhibit longer first fixation latencies on the eyes and mouth during the early attention stage of emotional face recognition, indicating an avoidance tendency toward key facial recognition cues. In the mid-to-late attention stages, depressive individuals show an increased fixation ratio on the eyes and a decreased fixation ratio on the mouth, along with lower accuracy and longer response times. These findings suggest that, relative to healthy individuals, individuals with depression have deficits in facial recognition.
This study identified distinct attention patterns and cognitive deficits in emotional face recognition among individuals with depression compared to healthy individuals, providing an attention-based approach for exploring potential clinical diagnostic markers for depression.
抑郁症是一种复杂的情感障碍，具有高患病率和严重影响，常伴有认知障碍。抑郁症的客观诊断缺乏精确标准。本研究调查抑郁症患者在情绪面孔识别任务（EFRT）中的眼动特征，为客观诊断提供实证支持。
我们从一家精神病医院招募了43名抑郁症患者（抑郁患者，DP），并在网上招募了44名健康参与者（健康对照组，HC）。所有参与者完成了一项包括120次试验的EFRT。每次试验先呈现800毫秒的灰色屏幕，然后呈现刺激图像以供判断。情绪分为积极、中性或消极。在整个任务过程中记录眼动轨迹。首次注视潜伏期（LFF）、眼睛感兴趣区域的首次注视潜伏期和嘴巴感兴趣区域的首次注视潜伏期用作早期注意力的代表性指标，眼睛感兴趣区域的比例和嘴巴感兴趣区域的比例作为中期注意力的指标，准确率（ACC）和反应时间（RT）作为后期注意力的行为指标。在本研究中，这些指标用于探索抑郁症患者与健康个体之间的差异。
与健康参与者相比，抑郁症患者在情绪面孔识别的早期注意力阶段，对眼睛和嘴巴的首次注视潜伏期更长，表明对关键面部识别线索有回避倾向。在注意力的中后期阶段，抑郁个体对眼睛的注视比例增加，对嘴巴的注视比例降低，同时准确率较低且反应时间较长。这些发现表明，与健康个体相比，抑郁症患者在面部识别方面存在缺陷。
本研究确定了抑郁症患者与健康个体在情绪面孔识别方面不同的注意力模式和认知缺陷，为探索抑郁症潜在的临床诊断标志物提供了一种基于注意力的方法。
