Psychological Development and Education ›› 2016, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (5): 513-520.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2016.05.01

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Difficulty in Disengaging Attention from Emotionally Negative Stimuli among Individuals with Sub-threshold Depression

LI Haijiang1, LU Jiamei1, ZHANG Qinglin2, QIU Jiang2   

  1. 1. Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234;
    2. Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality(SWU), Ministry of Education;School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715
  • Online:2016-09-15 Published:2016-09-15

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Abstract: Sub-threshold depression is clinically classified as those with mild self-reported symptoms of depression, but do not meet the criteria for major depression disorders. Given that people with sub-threshold depression are more likely to develop major depression disorders, it is critical to gain a better understanding of this disorder from both clinical and cognitive perspectives. The attentional bias towards negative emotional stimuli has been suggested as a precursor (or predictor) for depression. Using dot probe tasks, previous studies have revealed that, in patients with major depression, the attentional bias towards negative emotional stimuli can be the result of either facilitated orienting towards these stimuli or the difficulty in disengaging from them. No study has yet investigated this attentional bias in individuals suffering from sub-threshold depression. The present study examined the attentional bias towards negative emotional stimuli and the components of attentional bias among individuals with sub-threshold depression using dot probe task. A two-stage screening procedure were used to recruit participants with sub-threshold depression and non-depressed controls. The severity of neuroticism and anxiety were also collected and compared between individuals with sub-threshold depression and non-depressed controls. Positive, neutral and negative facial expression (positive: happy faces; neutral: neutral faces; negative: sad and angry faces) were selected from the NimStim Face Stimulus Set to create positive-neutral and negative-neutral pairs. Moreover, Neutral-Neutral baseline condition was included to explore any observed attentional bias effects that due to facilitated orienting or delayed disengagement of attention.Results found no significant differences between individuals with sub-threshold depression and non-depressed controls in age and general intelligence. However, individuals with sub-threshold depression had increased anxiety, neuroticism and depression than non-depressed controls. Behavioral data found that individuals with sub-threshold depression expressed significantly longer reaction time in negative-incongruent condition when compared with negative-congruent condition, indicating individuals with sub-threshold depression showed attentional bias for negative stimuli. To differentiate the components of attentional bias, we compared negative-congruent and negative-incongruent condition with the neutral-neutral baseline condition. Results observed that individuals with sub-threshold depression expressed longer reaction time in negative-incongruent condition than in neutral-neutral baseline condition, whereas no significant difference between negative-congruent condition and neutral-neutral baseline. These findings suggested that attentional bias for negative stimuli reflects difficulty in disengaging attention from negative stimuli among individuals with sub-threshold depression. In addition, we also found that non-depressed controls showed significantly longer reaction time in positive-incongruent condition compared with positive-congruent condition, suggesting non-depressed controls expressed attentional bias for positive stimuli. No other significant results were found.Conclusion, attentional bias for negative stimuli were observed among individuals with sub-threshold depression and the attentional bias for negative stimuli reflect difficulty in disengaging attention from emotionally negative stimuli. Individuals with sub-threshold depression did not express attentional bias towards positive stimuli as non-depressed controls did. The dysfunction of attentional control and emotional regulation may underlying attentional bias for negative stimuli among individuals with sub-threshold depression.

Key words: sub-threshold depression, attentional bias, attentional orienting, difficulty in disengagement

CLC Number: 

  • B844

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