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

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.