The Effects of Attentional Deployment on Reinterpretation in Depressed Adolescents: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Study

• Published in: Cognitive therapy and research Vol. 46; no. 5; pp. 967 - 982
• Main Authors: Piechaczek, Charlotte Elisabeth, Schröder, Pia-Theresa, Feldmann, Lisa, Schulte-Körne, Gerd, Greimel, Ellen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescents; Clinical Psychology; Cognitive ability; Cognitive Psychology; Emotional regulation; Emotions; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental depression; Original Article; Quality of Life Research; Teenagers; Adolescence; Attentional deployment; Reinterpretation; Major depression; Cognitive reappraisal
• ISSN: 0147-5916; 1573-2819
• DOI: 10.1007/s10608-022-10303-2

Background Individuals with major depression have difficulties employing cognitive reappraisal. Most prior studies have not accounted for attentional deployment, which seems to be involved in this process. Methods We investigated the cognitive reappraisal tactic reinterpretation in 20 depressed and 28 healthy youths and assessed regulation success in response to negative pictures via self-report. To investigate attentional deployment during reinterpretation, we applied eye-tracking and manipulated gaze focus by instructing participants to direct their attention towards/away from emotional picture aspects. Results Depressed adolescents, compared with healthy youths, had a diminished regulation success when their gaze was focused on emotional aspects. Both depressed and healthy adolescents spent less time fixating on emotional facets of negative pictures when using reinterpretation as compared with simply attending to the pictures. Conclusions Results from this study suggest that adolescents with major depression have emotion regulation deficits when being confronted with negative emotional facets, while showing intact overt attentional processes. The findings provide important starting points for future research investigating the role of other factors which might impact on emotion regulation processes in this patient group, such as cognitive control deficits.