Eye Tracking and Attentional Bias for Depressive Internet Memes in Depression

Background: Previous research highlights the potential benefits of engaging with depressive internet memes for those experiencing symptoms of depression. This study aimed to determine whether: compared to non- depressed controls, individuals experiencing depressive symptoms were quicker to orient and maintain overall attention for internet memes depicting depressive content relative to neutral memes. Methods: N=21 individuals were grouped based on the severity of reported depression symptoms using the PhQ-9. Specifically, a score of: 4 denoted the control group; and 15 the depressive symptoms group. Participants viewed a series of meme pairs depicting depressive and neutral memes for periods of 4000 milliseconds. Data for the first fixation onset and duration, and total gaze duration of eye-movements were recorded. Results: A significant group x meme-type interaction indicated that participants with depressive symptoms spent significantly more time observing depressive rather than neutral memes. Limitations: The small sample size may have limited our ability to detect interaction effects at the 5% alpha level. Conclusions: These outcomes provide suggestive evidence for the notion that depressive symptoms are associated with and attentional bias towards emotionally salient stimuli.