Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Biased attention to negative information is a mechanism for risk and relapse in depression. Attentional bias modification (ABM) paradigms manipulate attention from negative stimuli to reduce this bias. I developed and piloted a novel ABM paradigm using real-time feedback with eye-tracking technology. Participants who received training (3 sessions) showed significantly reduced biases, quicker disengagement from sad stimuli, and improved memory for happy words. The present study will examine 1) if a traditional psychotherapeutic dose of 12+ sessions results in behaviour change; 2) durability with follow-up assessments; 3) which effects are associated with functioning or mood change; and 4) functional outcomes. Sixty participants with depression will be randomly assigned to complete four weeks of either sham or active ABM, with weekly lab visits and daily at-home training with new tablet-based eye-tracking. Active training will use my novel eye-tracking task, which manipulates stimuli in response to visual fixations with the goal of rewarding attention to positive stimuli by obscuring or enhancing image quality of negative and positive stimuli, respectively. Attention bias, emotional memory, mood, and functioning will be assessed at baseline, post-training, and 3-months. Mixed model ANOVAs and regressions will test the hypotheses that training will alter biases, mood, and functioning, and that changes in core mechanisms (i.e., attention bias) predict improvements in mood and functioning. This portable neurotherapeutic approach may supplement traditional therapies that do not target underlying mechanisms of attention bias, and offers the opportunity to reach populations without access to traditional therapies.