AUTHOR=Monéger Jean , Harika-Germaneau Ghina , Jaafari Nematollah , Doolub Damien , Warck Laura , Selimbegović Leila , Chatard Armand 

TITLE=Depressive self-focus bias following failure: an eye-tracking study among individuals with clinical depression

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1459831

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1459831

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Objective: Depression is often characterized by a persistent sense of failure. Cognitive theories of depression suggest that depressed individuals may exhibit a maladaptive cognitive style, characterized by increased self-focus following personal failure. The validity of this proposition, however, is yet to be fully examined. This study aimed to identify the relation between symptoms in major depressive disorder and increased selffocus in failure situations. Methods: This clinical study involved a cohort of 30 patients diagnosed with and treated for depression. We used an eye-tracking paradigm to observe and analyze gaze directionindicative of either self-focus or self-avoidanceafter remembering a significant failure event.Results: Contrary to the maladaptive cognitive style hypothesis, a majority of the depressed participants demonstrated an inclination towards self-avoidance following failure. Nevertheless, approximately 30% of the patient groupthose with the highest scores of guilt, punishment, and self-blamedisplayed a self-focused attentional bias post-failure.The presence of a maladaptive self-focusing style may be confined to severely depressed patients with high levels of guilt, punishment, and self-blame. These findings could have substantial clinical implications, as attention bias modification interventions could be particularly beneficial for this subgroup of patients.