Are depressive symptoms linked to a reduced pupillary response to novel positive information? - An eye tracking proof-of-concept study

  • Introduction: Depressive symptoms have been linked to difficulties in revising established negative beliefs in response to novel positive information. Recent predictive processing accounts have suggested that this bias in belief updating may be related to a blunted processing of positive prediction errors at the neural level. In this proof-of-concept study, pupil dilation in response to unexpected positive emotional information was examined as a psychophysiological marker of an attenuated processing of positive prediction errors associated with depressive symptoms. Methods: Participants (N = 34) completed a modified version of the emotional Bias Against Disconfirmatory Evidence (BADE) task in which scenarios initially suggest negative interpretations that are later either confirmed or disconfirmed by additional information. Pupil dilation in response to the confirmatory and disconfirmatory information was recorded. Results: Behavioral results showed that depressive symptoms were related to difficulties in revising negative interpretations despite disconfirmatory positive information. The eye tracking results pointed to a reduced pupil response to unexpected positive information among people with elevated depressive symptoms. Discussion: Altogether, the present study demonstrates that the adapted emotional BADE task can be appropriate for examining psychophysiological aspects such as changes in pupil size along with behavioral responses. Furthermore, the results suggest that depression may be characterized by deviations in both behavioral (i.e., reduced updating of negative beliefs) and psychophysiological (i.e., decreased pupil dilation) responses to unexpected positive information. Future work should focus on a larger sample including clinically depressed patients to further explore these findings.

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Author:Alexandra M. Spaeth, Stephan Koenig, Jonas Everaert, Julia A. Glombiewski, Tobias Kube
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:386-kluedo-86533
Parent Title (English):Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher:Frontiers
Document Type:Article
Language of publication:English
Date of Publication (online):2024/02/23
Year of first Publication:2024
Publishing Institution:Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau
Date of the Publication (Server):2025/01/27
Tag:belief updating; depression; eye tracking; prediction error; pupillometry
GND Keyword:AugenfolgebewegungGND; PupillometrieGND; DepressionGND
Issue:Volume 15 (2024)
Page Number:13
Source:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1253045
Faculties / Organisational entities:Landau - Fachbereich Psychologie
DDC-Cassification:1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 150 Psychologie
Collections:Open-Access-Publikationsfonds
Licence (German):Zweitveröffentlichung