Do the seconds turn into hours? Relationships between sustained pupil dilation in response to emotional information and self-reported rumination

Abstract

This study examined relationships between self-reported rumination and sustained pupil dilation, an index of cognitive and emotional processing, in response to emotional information in depressed and never-depressed individuals. Pupil dilation was measured during tasks that required alternating emotional and nonemotional processing. Depressed individuals displayed more sustained pupil dilation in response to stimuli on emotional processing tasks than nondepressed individuals. Such sustained pupil dilation among depressed individuals was particularly apparent in response to negative and personally relevant emotional information. Multiple self-report measures of rumination were moderately correlated with sustained pupil dilation to negative personally relevant information. Results are consistent with the idea that sustained emotional processing of briefly presented stimuli may be associated with the propensity for depressive rumination.