Attention training through gaze-contingent feedback: effects on reappraisal and negative emotions

Reappraisal is central to emotion regulation but its mechanisms are unclear. This study tested the theoretical prediction that emotional attention bias is linked to reappraisal of negative emotion-eliciting stimuli and subsequent emotional responding using a novel attentional control training. Thirty-six undergraduates were randomly assigned to either the control or the attention training condition and were provided with different task instructions while they performed an interpretation task. Whereas control participants freely created interpretations, participants in the training condition were instructed to allocate attention toward positive words to efficiently create positive interpretations (i.e., recruiting attentional control) while they were provided with gaze-contingent feedback on their viewing behavior. Transfer to attention bias and reappraisal success was evaluated using a dot-probe task and an emotion regulation task which were administered before and after the training. The training condition was effective at increasing attentional control and resulted in beneficial effects on the transfer tasks. Analyses supported a serial indirect effect with larger attentional control acquisition in the training condition leading to negative attention bias reduction, in turn predicting greater reappraisal success which reduced negative emotions. Our results indicate that attentional mechanisms influence the use of reappraisal strategies and its impact on negative emotions. The novel attention training highlights the importance of tailored feedback to train attentional control. The findings provide an important step toward personalized delivery of attention training

Older adults' attentional deployment : differential gaze patterns for different negative mood states

Background and objectives: Older adults are characterized by an attentional preference for positive over negative information. Since this positivity effect is considered to be an emotion regulation strategy, it should be more pronounced when emotion regulation is needed. In contrast to previous studies that focused on the effects of sad mood on attention, we used a stressor to activate emotion regulation and evaluate the effects of different types of mood state changes. Moreover, we evaluated mood effects on attentional processes using a paradigm that allows disentangling between different attentional engagement and disengagement processes. Methods: Sixty older adults were randomly assigned to receive a stressor or a control task. Before and after this manipulation, mood state levels (happy, sad, nervous, calm) were assessed. Next, attentional processing of happy, sad, and angry faces was investigated using an eye-tracking paradigm in which participants had to either engage their attention towards or disengage their attention away from emotional stimuli. Results: Changes in different mood state levels were associated with different attentional disengagement strategies. As expected, older adults who increased in sad mood level showed a larger positivity effect as evidenced by a longer time to disengage attention from happy faces. However, older adults who received the tension induction and who decreased in calm mood level were characterized by longer times to disengage attention from sad faces. Limitations: The stressor was only partially effective as it led to changes in calm mood, but not in nervous mood. Conclusions: These results suggest that older adults may deploy a positivity effect in attention (i.e., longer times to disengage from positive information) in order to regulate sad mood, but that this effect may be hampered during the confrontation with stressors. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Depression-related difficulties disengaging from negative faces are associated with sustained attention to negative feedback during social evaluation and predict stress recovery

The present study aimed to clarify: 1) the presence of depression-related attention bias related to a social stressor, 2) its association with depression-related attention biases as measured under standard conditions, and 3) their association with impaired stress recovery in depression. A sample of 39 participants reporting a broad range of depression levels completed a standard eye-tracking paradigm in which they had to engage/disengage their gaze with/from emotional faces. Participants then underwent a stress induction (i.e., giving a speech), in which their eye movements to false emotional feedback were measured, and stress reactivity and recovery were assessed. Depression level was associated with longer times to engage/disengage attention with/from negative faces under standard conditions and with sustained attention to negative feedback during the speech. These depression-related biases were associated and mediated the association between depression level and self-reported stress recovery, predicting lower recovery from stress after giving the speech

Attachment-related attention bias plays a causal role in trust in maternal support

The current study was designed to test whether children's ability to flexibly shift their attention (from their mother during distress to peers during exploration and vice versa) causally increases children's trust in the mother's support. We trained attention flexibility using a gaze-contingent music reward design. A total of 85 children (9-13 years of age; 46% boys) were randomly assigned to this training or a comparable yoked control condition. Attentional preferences were measured via eye tracking. Before and after the manipulation, we measured self-reported trust. Results showed that the training condition increased children's attention flexibility. Training-related increased attentional focus on the mother during distress was linked with increased trust. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Mind the social feedback : effects of tDCS applied to the left DLPFC on psychophysiological responses during the anticipation and reception of social evaluations

The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) is implicated in anticipatory (i.e. during anticipation of emotional stimuli) and online (i.e. during confrontation with emotional stimuli) emotion regulatory processes. However, research that investigates the causal role of the lDLPFC in these processes is lacking. In this study, 74 participants received active or sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the lDLPFC. Participants were told strangers evaluated them. These (rigged) social evaluations were presented, and in 50% of the trials, participants could anticipate the valence (positive or negative) of the upcoming social feedback. Pupil dilation (a marker of cognitive resource allocation) and skin conductance responses (a marker of arousal) were measured. The results indicate that active (compared to sham) tDCS reduced arousal during the confrontation with anticipated feedback but only marginally during the confrontation with unanticipated feedback. When participants were given the opportunity to anticipate the social feedback, tDCS reduced arousal, irrespective of whether one was anticipating or being confronted with the anticipated feedback. Moreover, tDCS reduced cognitive resource allocation during anticipation, which was associated with resource allocation increases during the subsequent confrontation. Altogether, results suggest that the lDLPFC is causally implicated in the interplay between anticipatory and online emotion regulatory processes

An online assessment to evaluate the role of cognitive biases and emotion regulation strategies for mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020: Structural equation modeling study

Background: Extant research supports causal roles of cognitive biases in stress regulation under experimental conditions. However, their contribution to psychological adjustment in the face of ecological major stressors has been largely unstudied. Objective: We developed a novel online method for the ecological examination of attention and interpretation biases during major stress (ie, the COVID-19 lockdown in March/April 2020) and tested their relations with the use of emotion regulation strategies (ie, reappraisal and rumination) to account for individual differences in psychological adjustment to major COVID-19–related stressors (ie, low depression and anxiety, and high well-being and resilience). Methods: Participants completed an online protocol evaluating the psychological impact of COVID-19–related stressors and the use of emotion regulation strategies in response to them, during the initial weeks of the lockdown of March/April 2020. They also completed a new online cognitive task designed to remotely assess attention and interpretation biases for negative information. The psychometric properties of the online cognitive bias assessments were very good, supporting their feasibility for ecological evaluation. Results: Structural equation models showed that negative interpretation bias was a direct predictor of worst psychological adjustment (higher depression and anxiety, and lower well-being and resilience; χ29=7.57; root mean square error of approximation=0.000). Further, rumination mediated the influence of interpretation bias in anxiety (P=.045; 95% CI 0.03-3.25) and resilience (P=.001; 95% CI −6.34 to −1.65), whereas reappraisal acted as a mediator of the influence of both attention (P=.047; 95% CI −38.71 to −0.16) and interpretation biases (P=.04; 95% CI −5.25 to −0.12) in well-being. Conclusions: This research highlights the relevance of individual processes of attention and interpretation during periods of adversity and identifies modifiable protective factors that can be targeted through online interventions

Associations between Social Support Dimensions and Resilience Factors and Pathways of Influence in Depression and Anxiety Rates in Young adults

Emerging adulthood is an important developmental period, associated to mental health risk. Resilience research points to both social and personal protective factors against development of psychopathology, but there is paucity with their comprehensive study in young adults. This study provides and initial integrative approach to model multiple dimensions of perceived social support (i.e., from family, friends, significant others) and personal factor of trait resilience (i.e., coping and persistence during stress, tolerance to negative affect, positive appraisals, trust) and their hypothesized contributions to reducing depression and anxiety rates. The study was conducted with a sample of 500 Spanish emerging adults (18 to 29 years old). Regression analyses and multiple mediation models were performed to test our hypotheses. Results showed that social support from family was the dimension with the highest strength relating individual differences in resilience. Furthermore, analyses supported a differential mediating role of specific resilience factors (coping and persistence during stress, tolerance to negative affect, positive appraisals, trust) in partially accounting for the association between higher social support from family and lower depression and anxiety levels in young adults. These results may inform new programs of mental health during emerging adulthood via the promotion of different sources of social support and their related resilience pathways contributing to low emotional symptomatology at this stage of development

Music to my ears, goal for my eyes? Music reward modulates gaze disengagement from negative stimuli in dysphoria

Attentional bias for negative information, i.e. difficulties in disengagement from negative stimuli, is considered to be one of the core mechanisms involved in the onset and maintenance of depression. However, current attention training procedures aimed at reducing this bias have shown limited success. In addition to the reliability and validity concerns generated by the use of dot-probe paradigm in these procedures, an important factor is the limited consideration of motivational influences in the use of attention training. Therefore, in the current study we examined whether goal stimuli, reinforced with music reward, can modulate attention for negative information in dysphoric individuals. Using a novel attention task which measures gaze disengagement from negative faces, we found that dysphoric individuals displayed greater difficulties in disengaging eye-gaze from negative and directing it towards standard neutral stimuli, as compared to non-dysphorics. However, when using reward-reinforced goal stimuli, dysphoric individuals were as quick as non-dysphorics in disengaging attention from negative stimuli in order to engage with goal-related stimuli. These results provide preliminary evidence for the modulating role of music-reinforced goals in the attention system of depressed individuals, and highlight how music-reinforced goals can be incorporated in current attention training procedures to improve outcomes

Contextual changes influence attention flexibility towards new goals

The ability to flexibly process affective information underlies resilient adaptation to changing situations. However, the impact of social contextual changes on affective flexibility has not been examined yet, although this may be crucial to understand how attention operates when changing situations require allocation of different emotional goals. In a novel eye-tracking task, participants had to deploy the goals to attend to positive or negative facial expressions based on contextual cues. We found that dysphorics, compared to non-dysphorics, were faster in switching to negative goals, but slower in switching to positive goals, when the context remained constant. However, when the context changed, dysphorics showed an even faster switch to negative goals, while non-dysphorics became more adept at switching towards positive goals. These results suggest that contextual changes exacerbate the negativity and positivity biases exhibited by dysphoric and non-dysphoric individuals, respectively. The study provides evidence for the key role played by contextual changes in guiding attention allocation and thereby emotion regulation processes. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the role of contextual inflexibility in dysphoria. Results need to be replicated in a clinical sample to further clarify the role of inflexibility over the course of depression