Is a Negative Attentional Bias in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder Explained by Comorbid Depression? An Eye-Tracking Study

Abstract

Heightened attention towards negative information is characteristic of depression. Evidence is emerging for a negative attentional bias in Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), perhaps driven by the high comorbidity between ASD and depression. We investigated whether ASD is characterised by a negative attentional bias and whether this can be explained by comorbid (sub) clinical depression. Participants (n = 116) with current (CD) or remitted depression (RD) and/or ASD, and 64 controls viewed positively and negatively valenced (non-)social pictures. Groups were compared on three components of visual attention using linear mixed models. Both CD individuals with and without ASD, but not remitted depressed and never-depressed ASD individuals showed a negative bias, suggesting that negative attentional bias might be a depressive state-specific marker for depression in ASD.

Keywords: Attentional bias; Autism spectrum disorder; Cognitive bias; Comorbidity; Depression.

Fig. 1

Left: an example slide from the non-social block, in which two positively valenced pictures (top left and bottom right) and two negatively valenced pictures are depicted (top right and bottom left). Right: an example slide from the social block, in which two positively valenced pictures (top left and bottom right) and two negatively valenced pictures (top right and bottom left) are depicted

Fig. 2

Total gaze duration (ms) per valence (positive vs. negative) for each group, ASD autism spectrum disorder, CD current depression, RD remitted depression, ASD+CD/RD autism spectrum disorder with depression, HC healthy controls, ASD+CD autism spectrum disorder with current depression, ASD+RD autism spectrum disorder with remitted depression. Asterisks highlight significantly different mean comparisons (*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001). Error bars represent standard errors