Association between sustained attention to external stimuli and improvement of depressive mood

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26780401
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Clinical psychology
• Research Institution: Rissho University
• Principal Investigator: Isato Ayako 立正大学, 心理学部, 特任講師 (20712897)
• Research Collaborator: NISHIMURA Haruki ; MATSUMOTO Noboru ; MASUYAMA Akihiro
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 抑うつ / 注意 / バイアス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The current study investigated the difference of attention between dysphoric individuals and non-dysphoric individuals. The results revealed that attention to external stimuli did not affect individuals' mood immediately. However, dysphoric individuals sustained their attention only to stimuli that elicit sad emotion. On the other hand, non-dysphoric individuals did not show this bias. Moreover, in dysphoric individuals, the episodic memory for negative event was associated with biased attention to sad information. Therefore, biased attention to negative information and difficulty in sustaining attention to other information might influence depressive mood via biased memory.

Free Research Field

臨床心理学，実験心理学