Background and objectives

Instrumentality plays a key role in guiding attention, such that stimuli associated with achieving current goals of an individual prioritize attention. However, in depression, attention is prioritized to negative stimuli even when they are not relevant to current goals. In the current study, we tested whether attention is prioritized to stimuli that are associated with avoidance of imminent negative consequences over negative affective stimuli.

Methods

Using an eye-tracking based attention engagement-disengagement task, we presented pairs of negative faces, and neutral faces associated with avoidance of punishment (white noise and lost money) to a group of dysphoric and non-dysphoric individuals.

Results

First, we replicated previous evidence on difficulties to disengage attention from negative stimuli, when prompted to direct eye-gaze towards simple neutral stimuli, in dysphoric compared to non-dysphoric individuals. Further, we found that both dysphoric and non-dysphoric individuals were faster to disengage their attention from negative pictures when prompted to direct eye-gaze towards punishment avoidance-related neutral stimuli, versus towards simple neutral stimuli.

Limitations

Although we seek to clarify the attention processes underlying depression, the current study employed a sub-clinical sample in order to serve as proof-of-concept study.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that stimuli instrumental to the goal of avoiding negative consequences receive preference in the attention system over simple negative affective stimuli. Our findings suggest that manipulating the instrumentality of avoidance motivation can effectively modulate the attention bias for negative information in dysphoria, and also possibly in depression, akin to the modulation patterns in non-dysphoric individuals.

中文翻译：

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操纵回避动机以调节烦躁中负面信息的注意力偏差：一项眼动追踪研究。

背景和目标

工具性在引导注意力方面起着关键作用，因此与实现个人当前目标相关的刺激将注意力放在首位。然而，在抑郁症中，即使负面刺激与当前目标无关，注意力也会被优先考虑。在当前的研究中，我们测试了注意力是否优先于与避免迫在眉睫的负面后果相关的刺激，而不是负面情感刺激。

方法

使用基于眼动追踪的注意力参与-脱离任务，我们向一组烦躁和非烦躁的人展示了成对的负面面孔和与避免惩罚（白噪声和丢钱）相关的中性面孔。

结果

首先，我们复制了先前关于难以将注意力从负面刺激中分离出来的证据，当提示将眼睛注视到简单的中性刺激时，与非烦躁个体相比，烦躁个体。此外，我们发现，与简单的中性刺激相比，当被提示将视线转向与惩罚相关的中性刺激时，烦躁和非烦躁的个体都能更快地将注意力从负面图片上移开。

限制

尽管我们试图阐明抑郁症的注意力过程，但目前的研究采用了亚临床样本作为概念验证研究。

结论

我们的结果表明，有助于避免负面后果的刺激在注意力系统中比简单的负面情感刺激更受青睐。我们的研究结果表明，操纵回避动机的工具可以有效地调节烦躁和抑郁中负面信息的注意偏差，类似于非烦躁个体的调节模式。