An eye movement study on attention bias to emotional face of depressed college students with alexithymia / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the characteristics of attentional bias to emotional faces of depressed college students with alexithymia.Methods:Using self-rating depression scale (SDS) and the twenty-item Toronto alexithymia scale(TAS-20), 25 low alexithymic-currently depressed undergraduates (LA-CD group), 33 low alexithymic-non depressed undergraduates(LA-ND group) and 23 high alexithymic-currently depressed undergraduates(HA-CD group) were selected from 885 valid questionnaires.Using eye tracking system, emotional face pictures were selected as stimulus materials, and the relative gaze time(attention bias score) of experimental participants was analyzed by statistical methods such as covariance analysis and adjustment analysis to explore the attentional bias of depressed college students with alexithymia.Results:(1) Under the low level of alexithymia, there was significant difference in attentional bias between college students in depression group (-0.23±0.18) and non-depressed group (0.06±0.11) ( F=55.876, P<0.01). (2) There were significant differences in relative attention bias among LA-CD group (-0.234±0.150), HA-CD group(-0.070±0.153) and LA-ND group (0.064±0.149) ( F(2, 78)=27.685, P<0.01). According to Bonferroni test, compared to the LA-CD group, the HA-CD group and LA-ND group showed less negative attentional bias.(3) The interaction between total SDS score and total TAS-20 score showed significant difference.Alexithymia played a regulatory role between total SDS score and attentional bias( β=0.333, t=3.345, P<0.01). Conclusion:Both the depressed college students with high alexithymia and the non-depressed college students with low alexithymia show less negative attentional bias.Alexithymia plays a regulatory role between depression and attentional bias.