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Decreased attentional allocation to centrally presented positive stimuli in individuals with depressive symptoms

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Abstract

Lack of positive emotion is considered an important aspect of depression. Previous studies have reported decreased attention to positive information for individuals with depressive symptoms; however, such studies have not investigated whether decreased attentional allocation occurs even when participants are required to fixate centrally on items presented in the visual field. In the present study, the attentional window (i.e., the spatial distribution of attentional resources) was measured with a modified version of the digit-parity task. In this task, the participants had to fixate on the centrally presented emotional face stimuli, and they were required to respond to the peripherally presented targets. The results indicated that individuals with higher levels of depressive symptoms were slower to respond when a target appeared near happy faces, which suggested decreased allocation of attention. Moreover, decreased allocation of attention to positive faces was found only in depressive individuals, not in individuals with social anxiety. The present findings suggest that individuals with higher levels of depressive symptoms allocate less attentional resources to positive stimuli, even when they are required to attend to them.

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Notes

  1. Stimuli number A-1-06, C-2-18, EM-4-07, JB-1-09, NR-1-06, PE-2-12, SW-3-09, and WF-2-12 were chosen for positive stimuli; and A-1-02, C-2-03, EM-2-04, JB-1-03, NR-1-03, PE-2-04, SW-3-03, and WF-2-05 for neutral stimuli.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellows (13J08747) and Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up (16H06707) awarded to Yuki Nishiguchi by the JSPS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Yuki Nishiguchi & Yoshihiko Tanno

  2. Faculty of Human Sciences, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan

    Yuki Nishiguchi

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  1. Yuki Nishiguchi
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  2. Yoshihiko Tanno
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Correspondence to Yuki Nishiguchi.

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Nishiguchi, Y., Tanno, Y. Decreased attentional allocation to centrally presented positive stimuli in individuals with depressive symptoms. Curr Psychol 42, 914–922 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01496-y

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