Emotional Expression Processing and Depressive Symptomatology: Eye-Tracking Reveals Differential Importance of Lower and Middle Facial Areas of Interest

The current study explored the eye-tracking patterns of individuals with nonclinical levels of depressive symptomatology when processing emotional expressions. Fifty-three college undergraduates were asked to label 80 facial expressions of five emotions (anger, fear, happiness, neutral, and sadness) while an eye-tracker measured visit duration. We argue visit duration provides more detailed information for evaluating which features of the face are used more often for processing emotional faces. Our findings indicated individuals with nonclinical levels of depressive symptomatology process emotional expressions very similarly to individuals with little to no depressive symptoms, with one noteworthy exception. In general, individuals in our study visited the “T” region, lower and middle AOIs (Area of Interest), more often than upper and noncore areas, but the distinction between the lower and middle AOIs appears for happiness only when individuals are higher in depressive symptoms.