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Fu X, Bolton SH, Morningstar M, Mattson WI, Feng X, Nelson EE. Young Children of Mothers with a History of Depression Show Attention Bias to Sad Faces: An Eye-tracking Study. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 2024:10.1007/s10802-024-01205-w. [PMID: 38713348 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-024-01205-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024]
Abstract
Maternal depression is a predictor of the emergence of depression in the offspring. Attention bias (AB) to negative emotional stimuli in children may serve as a risk factor for children of depressed parents. The present study aimed to examine the effect of maternal major depressive disorder (MDD) history on AB to emotional faces in children at age four, before the age of onset for full-blown psychiatric symptoms. The study also compared AB patterns between mothers and their offspring. Fifty-eight mothers and their four-year-old children participated in this study, of which 27 high-risk (HR) children had mothers with MDD during their children's lifetime. Attention to emotional faces was measured in both children and their mothers using an eye-tracking visual search task. HR children exhibited faster detection and longer dwell time toward the sad than happy target faces. The low-risk (LR) children also displayed a sad bias but to a lesser degree. Children across both groups showed AB towards angry target faces, likely reflecting a normative AB pattern. Our findings indicate that AB to sad faces may serve as an early marker of depression risk. However, we provided limited support for the mother-child association of AB. Future research is needed to examine the longitudinal intergenerational transmission of AB related to depression and possible mechanisms underlying the emergence of AB in offspring of depressed parents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoxue Fu
- Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, 29201, Columbia, SC, USA.
| | - Scout H Bolton
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
| | | | - Whitney I Mattson
- Center for Biobehavioral Health, Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Xin Feng
- Department of Human and Family Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Eric E Nelson
- Center for Biobehavioral Health, Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
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Michalek JE, Qtaishat L, von Stumm S, El Kharouf A, Dajani R, Hadfield K, Mareschal I. Maternal Trauma and Psychopathology Symptoms Affect Refugee Children's Mental Health But Not Their Emotion Processing. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 2024:10.1007/s10802-024-01182-0. [PMID: 38430294 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-024-01182-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
Refugee children's development may be affected by their parents' war-related trauma exposure and psychopathology symptoms across a range of cognitive and affective domains, but the processes involved in this transmission are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the impact of refugee mothers' trauma exposure and mental health on their children's mental health and attention biases to emotional expressions. In our sample of 324 Syrian refugee mother-child dyads living in Jordan (children's Mage=6.32, SD = 1.18; 50% female), mothers reported on their symptoms of anxiety and depression, and on their children's internalising, externalising, and attention problems. A subset of mothers reported their trauma exposure (n = 133) and PTSD symptoms (n = 124). We examined emotion processing in the dyads using a standard dot-probe task measuring their attention allocation to facial expressions of anger and sadness. Maternal trauma and PTSD symptoms were linked to child internalising and attention problems, while maternal anxiety and depression symptoms were associated with child internalising, externalising, and attention problems. Mothers and children were hypervigilant towards expressions of anger, but surprisingly, mother and child biases were not correlated with each other. The attentional biases to emotional faces were also not linked to psychopathology risk in the dyads. Our findings highlight the importance of refugee mothers' trauma exposure and psychopathology on their children's wellbeing. The results also suggest a dissociation between the mechanisms underlying mental health and those involved in attention to emotional faces, and that intergenerational transmission of mental health problems might involve mechanisms other than attentional processes relating to emotional expressions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia E Michalek
- Youth Resilience Unit, Centre for Psychiatry and Mental Health, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
| | | | | | - Amal El Kharouf
- Centre for Women Studies, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
| | - Rana Dajani
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan
| | - Kristin Hadfield
- Trinity Centre for Global Health, School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Isabelle Mareschal
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Psychology, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
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Lewis LS, Wessling EG, Kano F, Stevens JMG, Call J, Krupenye C. Bonobos and chimpanzees remember familiar conspecifics for decades. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2304903120. [PMID: 38109542 PMCID: PMC10756267 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2304903120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Recognition and memory of familiar conspecifics provides the foundation for complex sociality and is vital to navigating an unpredictable social world [Tibbetts and Dale, Trends Ecol. Evol. 22, 529-537 (2007)]. Human social memory incorporates content about interactions and relationships and can last for decades [Sherry and Schacter, Psychol. Rev. 94, 439-454 (1987)]. Long-term social memory likely played a key role throughout human evolution, as our ancestors increasingly built relationships that operated across distant space and time [Malone et al., Int. J. Primatol. 33, 1251-1277 (2012)]. Although individual recognition is widespread among animals and sometimes lasts for years, little is known about social memory in nonhuman apes and the shared evolutionary foundations of human social memory. In a preferential-looking eye-tracking task, we presented chimpanzees and bonobos (N = 26) with side-by-side images of a previous groupmate and a conspecific stranger of the same sex. Apes' attention was biased toward former groupmates, indicating long-term memory for past social partners. The strength of biases toward former groupmates was not impacted by the duration apart, and our results suggest that recognition may persist for at least 26 y beyond separation. We also found significant but weak evidence that, like humans, apes may remember the quality or content of these past relationships: apes' looking biases were stronger for individuals with whom they had more positive histories of social interaction. Long-lasting social memory likely provided key foundations for the evolution of human culture and sociality as they extended across time, space, and group boundaries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura S. Lewis
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138
- School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St AndrewsKY16 9AX, United Kingdom
| | - Erin G. Wessling
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138
- School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St AndrewsKY16 9AX, United Kingdom
| | - Fumihiro Kano
- Kumamoto Sanctuary, Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kumamoto862-0911, Japan
- Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior, University of Konstanz, Konstanz78457, Germany
| | - Jeroen M. G. Stevens
- Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, AntwerpBE-2000, Belgium
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp2018, Belgium
| | - Josep Call
- School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St AndrewsKY16 9AX, United Kingdom
| | - Christopher Krupenye
- School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St AndrewsKY16 9AX, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD21218
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Sfärlea A, Radix AK, Schulte-Körne G, Legenbauer T, Platt B. Attention Biases for Eating Disorder-Related Stimuli Versus Social Stimuli in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa - An Eye-Tracking Study. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 2023; 51:541-555. [PMID: 36418631 PMCID: PMC10017650 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-022-00993-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by attention biases for eating disorder-related information as well as altered attentional processing of social information. However, little is known about the interplay between the altered attentional processing of these two types of information. The present study investigates attention biases for eating disorder-related information (pictures of bodies) versus social information (pictures of faces), in adolescents with AN. Attention biases were assessed via eye-tracking during a passive-viewing task in which female bodies and faces were presented simultaneously and thus competed directly for attention. Female adolescents (13-18 years) with AN (n = 28) were compared to a clinical comparison group (adolescents with major depression; n = 20) and a comparison group of adolescents with no mental illness (n = 24). All groups looked longer at bodies than at faces, i.e., showed attention biases for bodies in maintenance of attention. These biases were more pronounced in adolescents with AN than in both comparison groups, particularly for underweight bodies, at the expense of looking less at social stimuli. The results indicate "dual" attention biases in adolescents with AN (i.e., towards bodies and away from emotional faces) which could have a twofold negative impact on eating disorder psychopathology: increased attention to eating disorder-related information might directly influence eating disorder symptoms while less attention to social information might have an indirect influence through the amplification of interpersonal difficulties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anca Sfärlea
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Research Department, Nussbaumstr. 5, 80336, Munich, Germany.
| | - Anne Kathrin Radix
- LWL-University Clinic of the RUB Bochum, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics, Hamm, Germany
| | - Gerd Schulte-Körne
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Research Department, Nussbaumstr. 5, 80336, Munich, Germany
| | - Tanja Legenbauer
- LWL-University Clinic of the RUB Bochum, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics, Hamm, Germany
| | - Belinda Platt
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Research Department, Nussbaumstr. 5, 80336, Munich, Germany
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Buhl C, Sfärlea A, Loechner J, Starman-Wöhrle K, Salemink E, Schulte-Körne G, Platt B. Biased Maintenance of Attention on Sad Faces in Clinically Depressed Youth: An Eye-Tracking Study. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 2023; 54:189-201. [PMID: 34476682 PMCID: PMC9867681 DOI: 10.1007/s10578-021-01229-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
The role of negative attention biases (AB), central to cognitive models of adult depression, is yet unclear in youth depression. We investigated negative AB in depressed compared to healthy youth and tested whether AB are more pronounced in depressed than at-risk youth. Negative AB was assessed for sad and angry faces with an eye-tracking paradigm [Passive Viewing Task (PVT)] and a behavioural task [Visual Search Task (VST)], comparing three groups of 9-14-year-olds: youth with major depression (MD; n = 32), youth with depressed parents (high-risk; HR; n = 49) and youth with healthy parents (low-risk; LR; n = 42). The PVT revealed MD participants to maintain attention longer on sad faces compared to HR, but not LR participants. This AB correlated positively with depressive symptoms. The VST revealed no group differences. Our results provide preliminary evidence for a negative AB in maintenance of attention on disorder-specific emotional information in depressed compared to at-risk youth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Buhl
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, LMU University Hospital Munich, Pettenkoferstr. 8a, 80336, Munich, Germany.
| | - Anca Sfärlea
- grid.411095.80000 0004 0477 2585Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, LMU University Hospital Munich, Pettenkoferstr. 8a, 80336 Munich, Germany
| | - Johanna Loechner
- grid.411095.80000 0004 0477 2585Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, LMU University Hospital Munich, Pettenkoferstr. 8a, 80336 Munich, Germany ,grid.424214.50000 0001 1302 5619German Youth Institute, Munich, Germany
| | - Kornelija Starman-Wöhrle
- grid.411095.80000 0004 0477 2585Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, LMU University Hospital Munich, Pettenkoferstr. 8a, 80336 Munich, Germany
| | - Elske Salemink
- grid.5477.10000000120346234Department of Clinical Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Gerd Schulte-Körne
- grid.411095.80000 0004 0477 2585Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, LMU University Hospital Munich, Pettenkoferstr. 8a, 80336 Munich, Germany
| | - Belinda Platt
- grid.411095.80000 0004 0477 2585Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, LMU University Hospital Munich, Pettenkoferstr. 8a, 80336 Munich, Germany
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Sfärlea A, Lukas L, Schulte-Körne G, Platt B. The KOALA-study: study protocol for a comprehensive study of cognitive biases in adolescent anorexia nervosa patients compared to healthy and clinical controls. J Eat Disord 2021; 9:139. [PMID: 34715933 PMCID: PMC8555351 DOI: 10.1186/s40337-021-00494-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by dysfunctional cognitions including cognitive biases at various levels of information processing. However, less is known about the specificity of these biases, i.e., if they occur for eating-disorder-related information alone or also for non-eating-disorder-related emotional information in AN patients (content-specificity) and if they are unique to individuals with AN or are also shown by individuals with other mental disorders (disorder-specificity). METHODS The present study systematically assesses cognitive biases in 12-18-year-old female adolescents with AN on three levels of information processing (attention, interpretation, and memory) and with regard to two types of information content (eating-disorder-related, i.e., stimuli related to body weight and shape, and non-eating-disorder-related). To address not only content- but also disorder-specificity, adolescents with AN will be compared not only to a healthy control group but also to a clinical control group (adolescents with major depression or particular anxiety disorders). Cognitive biases are assessed within a single experimental paradigm based on the Scrambled Sentences Task. During the task eye movements are recorded in order to assess attention biases while interpretation biases are derived from the behavioural outcome. An incidental free recall test afterwards assesses memory biases. We expect adolescents with AN to show more pronounced negative cognitive biases on all three levels of information processing and for both types of content compared to healthy adolescents. In addition, we expect the specificity of biases to translate into differential results for the two types of content: AN patients are expected to show stronger biases for disorder-related stimuli but similar or less pronounced biases for non-disorder-related stimuli compared to the clinical control group. DISCUSSION This is the first study to comprehensively assess cognitive biases in adolescents with AN. It will have essential implications not only for cognitive-behavioural models of AN but also for subsequent studies aiming to modify cognitive biases in this population, thereby addressing important maintaining factors already at an early stage of the disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anca Sfärlea
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Pettenkoferstr. 8a, 80336, Munich, Germany.
| | - Linda Lukas
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Pettenkoferstr. 8a, 80336, Munich, Germany
| | - Gerd Schulte-Körne
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Pettenkoferstr. 8a, 80336, Munich, Germany
| | - Belinda Platt
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Pettenkoferstr. 8a, 80336, Munich, Germany
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Sfärlea A, Takano K, Buhl C, Loechner J, Greimel E, Salemink E, Schulte-Körne G, Platt B. Emotion Regulation as a Mediator in the Relationship Between Cognitive Biases and Depressive Symptoms in Depressed, At-risk and Healthy Children and Adolescents. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 2021; 49:1345-1358. [PMID: 33864181 PMCID: PMC8380236 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-021-00814-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Contemporary cognitive models of depression propose that cognitive biases for negative information at the level of attention (attention biases; AB) and interpretation (interpretation biases; IB) increase depression risk by promoting maladaptive emotion regulation (ER). So far, empirical support testing interactions between these variables is restricted to non-clinical and clinical adult samples. The aim of the current study was to extend these findings to a sample of children and adolescents. This cross-sectional study included 109 children aged 9–14 years who completed behavioural measures of AB (passive-viewing task) and IB (scrambled sentences task) as well as self-report measures of ER and depressive symptoms. In order to maximize the variance in these outcomes we included participants with a clinical diagnosis of depression as well as non-depressed youth with an elevated familial risk of depression and non-depressed youth with a low familial risk of depression. Path model analysis indicated that all variables (AB, IB, adaptive and maladaptive ER) had a direct effect on depressive symptoms. IB and AB also had significant indirect effects on depressive symptoms via maladaptive and adaptive ER. These findings provide initial support for the role of ER as a mediator between cognitive biases and depressive symptoms and provide the foundations for future experimental and longitudinal studies. In contrast to studies in adult samples, both adaptive as well as maladaptive ER mediated the effect of cognitive biases on depressive symptoms. This suggests potentially developmental differences in the role of ER across the lifespan.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Sfärlea
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - K Takano
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - C Buhl
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - J Loechner
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
- Deutsches Jugendinstitut (DJI), Munich, Germany
| | - E Greimel
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - E Salemink
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - G Schulte-Körne
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - B Platt
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
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