Predicting Depression Using Angry Faces

A study reveals that depressed people focus their attention in a particular way.

Predicting depression using angry faces

Depression is a complex disorder about which very little is known, as many factors may be at cross-purposes in its causes. However, one of the key one of the keys to predicting depression may lie in the type of stimuli to which we pay attention, according to a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.according to a team of researchers at Bringhamton University.

Research

This team of scientists conducted an experiment using 160 women as a sample group, 60 of whom had been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives. Each of these volunteers had to look at two types of images: one face with a neutral expression and another face that could show a state of sadness, anger or joy.anger or joy.

Using a gaze-tracking system, the researchers were able to monitor the path of the eyes and see which points in each set of images generated the most interest in the women. They were then able to analyze the results obtained for each person and relate them to their history, finding that volunteers with diagnosed depression tended to look more at faces that showed anger.

Looking more at angry faces indicates a higher risk of depression.

More interesting from a practical point of view, however, is another of the results obtained. The researchers followed up these 60 women in the "depression" group and found that those who had tended to look at angry faces during the experiment were more likely to be depressed. those who had tended to fixate more on angry faces during the experiment showed a higher risk of relapsing into another crisis during the following two years.. It was also recorded that these women were more likely to go through another stage of depression earlier than the other volunteers.

In a way, this means that simply paying attention to certain negative aspects of relationships with others could increase the likelihood of developing depression.. Thus, creating intervention programs in which people are trained to modify their attention patterns could be helpful to, as it were, make it easier for them to see the bright side of life.

But, in the short term, the most important thing is that this simple face test could help to detect those cases in which there is a greater risk of developing depression and take appropriate measures before it happens.

Bibliographic references

• Woody, M. L., Owens, M., Burkhouse, K. L., & Gibb, B. E. (2015). Selective Attention Toward Angry Faces and Risk for Major Depressive Disorder in Women Converging