The attention biases to emotional stimulus in depressive patients and the evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging

Objective To explore the attentional biases in depressive patients and the evdence from functional magnetic resonace imaging (fMRI). Methods The Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression (HRSD17) and Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders (CCMD-3) were used to select the participants:the subjects were diagnosed into three categories according to the HRSD17 and CCMD-3:depression group (n =9,HRSD17 score ≥ 17 ),recovery group ( n =9,7 ≤ HRSD17 ＜ 17 ) and control group ( n =10,HRSD17 ＜ 7).The Emotional Stroop Task and fMRI were used to test the attentional bias and brain function of depressive patients under the stimulation of emotional face.Results ( 1 ) The recovery group' s reaction time (RT) under the stimulations of negative,positive and neutral emotional face [ (701.85 ± 180.70),(635.58 ± 119.79),(598.88 ± 130.41 ) ms] were significantly shorter than the depression group [(991.04±194.23),(888.22 ± 184.16),(745.59 ± 165.38) ms,P ＜0.05]; but there is no significant difference compared with the control group [ ( 649.40 ± 143.35 ),( 633.28 ± 120.50 ),(565.69 ± 89.87) ms,P ＞ 0.05 ].(2) The activation of brain lobes ( including the superior and middle gyrus of left and right frontal lobe,right temporal lobe,left lingual gyrus and left occipital lobe) under the stimulations of negative emotional face were significantly stronger and larger in recovery group than the depression group.Conclusion The findings suggest that the attention bias in negative information for the depressive patients may get weaker and their brain function may be improved in the precess of clinical recovery. Key words: Depression;  Magnetic Resonance Imaging;  Attentional biases;  Emotions; Stroop task