Attentional Biases for Affective Cues as a Mechanism of Risk in Children of Depressed Mothers

项目摘要/摘要 抑郁症是世界上导致残疾的主要原因，这种疾病的风险在后代中尤其高 患有抑郁症的母亲。理论家们提出，儿童处理社会情绪信息的方式 可能是抑郁症代际传递的重要风险机制。的确有 越来越多的证据表明，儿童对面部情绪表现的偏向关注--特别是注意力 避免悲伤的表情--可能是在生命早期形成的一种关键的风险机制。尽管有 一些混合的发现，在一些研究中有越来越多的证据表明母亲的孩子有 儿童一生中患有严重抑郁障碍(MDD)的病史表现出对悲伤面孔的注意回避， 这被认为是一种较早出现的情绪调节策略。相比之下，有明确的证据表明 处于危险和抑郁状态的青少年和成年人很难将注意力从悲伤的脸上移开。它 因此，似乎注意偏差的形式和可能的功能在高危儿童的发育过程中发生了变化。 青春年华。在某种程度上，这是真的，它不仅对代际关系理论具有重大影响 传播抑郁症风险，也是为了预防和早期干预努力，旨在降低这一风险。 拟议项目的主要目标1是澄清子代注意偏向的性质和轨迹 患有MDD的母亲。我们将完成一项为期两年的多波研究，对有和没有MDD病史的母亲进行研究 及其子女(基线评估时年龄为7-14岁)。在每一次评估中，我们将使用创新、 结合眼球跟踪和直接神经注意标记物的注意偏差的多方法测量 在基于计算机的任务和实际的母子互动期间进行分配。这将使我们能够绘制出 7-16岁儿童注意偏向的变化轨迹，以检验注意偏向发生转移的假设 从注意力回避模式到儿童时期难以将注意力从悲伤面孔中分离出来的模式 进入青春期。主要目标2是研究这些注意偏差对青少年患癌症风险的影响。 抑郁，以及这种情况是否会在发育过程中发生变化。最后，因为与年龄相关的注意力变化 偏见可以代表这一时期发生的其他发展变化，这是一个次要目标 是检验青春期发育指数对注意力偏向变化的预测程度 (水平、时机、节奏)以及认知过程的变化(即，沉思)和人际压力 已知发生在青春期过渡期间，并与注意力偏向有关。在每一个中 在这些目标中，我们还将探索潜在的双向关系，这可能表明风险的恶性循环。 最后，对于每个目标，我们将评估母婴抑郁症与其他形式的抑郁症的特异性 精神变态学。该项目不仅将有助于澄清代际风险的关键机制 抑郁症的传播，但也强调了针对这一危险因素的干预措施可能需要 在发展上进行调整，以避免加剧风险，而不是减轻风险。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world and risk for the disorder is especially high in offspring of mothers with depression. Theorists have proposed that the way children process social-emotional information may serve as an important mechanism of risk for the intergenerational transmission of depression. There is growing evidence that children’s biased attention to facial displays of emotion – specifically, attentional avoidance of sad faces – may represent a key mechanism of risk that develops early in life. Although there have been some mixed findings, there is growing evidence across a number of studies that children of mothers with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) during the child’s life exhibit attentional avoidance of sad faces, which has been proposed as an early emerging emotion regulation strategy. In contrast, there is clear evidence that at-risk and depressed adolescents and adults exhibit difficulty disengaging attention from sad faces. It appears, therefore, that the form and perhaps function of attentional bias shifts across development in at-risk youth. To the extent that this is true, it has significant implications not only for theories of the intergenerational transmission of depression risk but also for prevention and early intervention efforts designed to reduce this risk. Primary Aim 1 of the proposed project is to the clarify the nature and trajectories of attentional biases in offspring of mothers with MDD. We will complete a 2-year, multi-wave study of mothers with and without a history of MDD and their children (aged 7-14 years old at the baseline assessment). At each assessment, we will use innovative, multi-method measures of attentional biases incorporating eye-tracking and direct neural markers of attentional allocation during computer-based tasks and actual mother-offspring interactions. This will allow us to chart trajectories of change in attentional biases between the ages of 7 and 16 to test the hypothesis that they shift from a pattern of attentional avoidance to pattern of difficulty disengaging attention from sad faces as children age into adolescence. Primary Aim 2 is to examine the impact of these attentional biases on youths’ risk for depression and whether this changes across development. Finally, because age-related changes in attentional biases could represent a proxy for other developmental changes that occur during this period, a Secondary Aim is to examine the extent to which changes in attentional bias are predicted by indices of pubertal development (level, timing, tempo) as well as changes in cognitive processes (i.e., rumination) and interpersonal stress that are known to occur during the transition to adolescence and that have been linked to attentional biases. In each of these aims, we will also explore potential bidirectional relations, which could indicate vicious cycles of risk. Finally, for each aim, we will evaluate specificity to maternal and child depression versus other forms of psychopathology. This project will help to not only clarify a key mechanism of risk for the intergenerational transmission of depression, but also highlight how interventions designed to target this risk factor may need to be developmentally tuned to avoid exacerbating rather than mitigating risk.