Pupil response to negative emotional information in individuals at risk for depression

Abstract

Using pupil dilation as a physiological gauge of cognitive and emotional load, currently depressed individuals have previously shown sustained processing of negative emotional information. In this study, pupil dilation data from 24 recovered-depressed individuals were compared to those of 25 never-depressed individuals during a task in which they labelled the valence of emotional words before and after a negative mood-state induction. Before the mood induction, recovered-depressed participants evidenced more sustained pupil dilation in response to negative stimuli than did never-depressed participants. However, after the mood induction, sustained dilation to negative stimuli decreased for recovered participants in comparison to never-depressed participants. These findings suggest that, for people at risk for depression, small amounts of negative information are highly salient and yield increased physiological responses. However, larger amounts of negative information lead to decreased reactions potentially associated with emotional and cognitive blunting.