Abstract
Emotional reactions to movies are typically similar between people. However, depressive symptoms decrease synchrony in brain responses. Less is known about the effect of depressive symptoms on intersubject synchrony in conscious stimulus-related processing. In this study, we presented amusing, sad and fearful movie clips to dysphoric individuals (those with elevated depressive symptoms) and control participants to dynamically rate the clips’ valences (positive vs. negative). We analysed both the valence ratings’ mean values and intersubject correlation (ISC). We used electrodermal activity (EDA) to complement the measurement in a separate session. There were no group differences in either the EDA or mean valence rating values for each movie type. As expected, the valence ratings’ ISC was lower in the dysphoric than the control group, specifically for the sad movie clips. In addition, there was a negative relationship between the valence ratings’ ISC and depressive symptoms for sad movie clips in the full sample. The results are discussed in the context of the negative attentional bias in depression. The findings extend previous brain activity results of ISC by showing that depressive symptoms also increase variance in conscious ratings of valence of stimuli in a mood-congruent manner.
Highlights
Emotional reactions to movies are typically similar between people
We report the mean values of the electrodermal activity (EDA) responses and dynamic behavioural ratings to amusing, fearful and sad movie clips, and compare the responses between the dysphoric and control participants
We found that dysphoric participants were less synchronized than controls in their dynamic valence ratings, for sad movie clips
Summary
Emotional reactions to movies are typically similar between people. depressive symptoms decrease synchrony in brain responses. We presented amusing, sad and fearful movie clips to dysphoric individuals (those with elevated depressive symptoms) and control participants to dynamically rate the clips’ valences (positive vs negative). We analysed both the valence ratings’ mean values and intersubject correlation (ISC). The findings extend previous brain activity results of ISC by showing that depressive symptoms increase variance in conscious ratings of valence of stimuli in a mood-congruent manner. In this study we investigate whether depressive symptoms affect the dynamic valence ratings of emotional movie clips. Previous studies have not investigated the ISC of emotional movie contents’ dynamic valence ratings neither in healthy nor depressive participants. ISC in neural responses has been found to be affected by, for instance, valence and arousal from emotional e vents[20], attentional engagement with s timuli[23,24,25]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
