title: Psychological, endocrine, and neural correlates of attentional bias in subclinical depression.
abstract: Our knowledge with respect to psychological, endocrine, and neural correlates of attentional bias in individuals with high vulnerability to developing depression - the subclinically depressed, still remains limited.
  
  
  
  The study used a 2 × 2 mixed design.
  
  
  
  Attentional bias toward happy and sad faces in healthy (N = 26) and subclinically depressed individuals (N = 22) was assessed via a neuroimaging dot-probe attention task. Participants also completed trait and state psychological measures and provided saliva samples for cortisol analysis.
  
  
  
  The subclinical group showed attentional bias toward happy faces; past use of problem-focused coping strategies when dealing with a personally relevant stressor as well as state levels of anxiety, together, contributed to this bias. In the control group, the happy attentional bias was positively correlated with activity in the right caudate. In the subclinical group, the bias was negatively associated with the left fusiform gyrus and positively with the left inferior parietal lobule and bilateral putamen. We observed group differences in association between cortisol levels during the task and neural activity during happy attentional bias processing within the key regions involved in attention.
  
  
  
  The attentional bias toward happy faces may reflect an active coping attempt by the subclinical participants.
authors.affiliation: a Douglas Institute Research Centre , McGill University , Boulevard Lasalle Verdun, QC , Canada.|b Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory , University of California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dedovic
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychology , University of California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Saskia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Giebl
authors.affiliation: a Douglas Institute Research Centre , McGill University , Boulevard Lasalle Verdun, QC , Canada.|d Department of Biology , Bishop's University , Sherbrooke , QC , Canada.
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Duchesne
authors.affiliation: a Douglas Institute Research Centre , McGill University , Boulevard Lasalle Verdun, QC , Canada.
authors.forename: Sonja D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Lue
authors.affiliation: a Douglas Institute Research Centre , McGill University , Boulevard Lasalle Verdun, QC , Canada.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.affiliation: a Douglas Institute Research Centre , McGill University , Boulevard Lasalle Verdun, QC , Canada.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Efanov
authors.affiliation: a Douglas Institute Research Centre , McGill University , Boulevard Lasalle Verdun, QC , Canada.|e Department of Social Neuroscience , Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences , Leipzig , Germany.
authors.forename: Veronika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Engert
authors.affiliation: f McGill Centre for studies in Aging , McGill University , Verdun , Québec , Canada.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Beaudry
authors.affiliation: g Department of Psychology , McGill University , QC , Canada.
authors.forename: Mark W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Baldwin
authors.affiliation: a Douglas Institute Research Centre , McGill University , Boulevard Lasalle Verdun, QC , Canada.|f McGill Centre for studies in Aging , McGill University , Verdun , Québec , Canada.
authors.forename: Jens C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Pruessner
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D000070379:Attentional Bias / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Attentional bias; coping; cortisol; fMRI; subclinical depression