A-288 Valenced Attention Shifting Deficits Evident via Eye-tracking and not Reaction Time Measures in a Psychiatric Sample

Abstract Objective: Inflexible attention shifting from dysphoric information is a key component of contemporary depression risk models. Yet, the literature is mixed concerning such deficits in depressed samples, perhaps partly due to construct-irrelevant variance (e.g., motor speed) that saturates some behavioral attention shifting measures. This study evaluates the clinical validity of an eye-tracking-based measure of motivated attention shifting in response to neutral and valenced stimuli. Method: Hungarian adults with depression histories (N=198; Mage=26.83, 45% female; n=28 depressed) completed psychiatric interviews (SCID), depression measures (BDI-II, PANAS-X), and a visual attention shifting task via E-prime 3.0 and Tobii x2-60 eye-tracking system. Participants viewed 72 same-actor face pairs (angry-neutral, sad-neutral, happy-neutral, neutral-neutral) drawn from the KDEF database; attention shifting indices (outcomes of interest) reflected visual attention shifting speed away from a sad- or happy-valenced face towards a neutral face (disengagement), in reverse order (engagement), and across neutral face pairs (valence-free shifting) in response to a visual prompt (i.e., a shape framing the target face). Parallel behavioral indices reflect reaction times to said visual prompts. Depression status, severity, and affects served as the validators. Results: Independent of demographics, valence-free shifting, and valid task trial frequency, current depression (βDep=.29, p=.016), low trait positive affect (βPANAS-X,PA=-.14, p=.02), and depression severity at a trend level (βBDI-II=.06, p=.059) predicted slow sad-face disengagement; no other effect reached significance. Conclusion: Results suggest that shifting visual attention away from sad, but not positively-valenced information may be linked to depressive states among formerly depressed persons and provide some evidence for the eye-tracking-based task’s incremental validity to behavioral parallels.