The fine-tuned interplay between attention and emotion in dysphoria: an ERP and cardiac deceleration study

The complex interplay between emotions and the distinct stages of atten-tional processing in dysphoria, or subclinical depression, has yet to be in-vestigated in a single study. Accordingly, the present study represents the first attempt to assess whether and how emotions affect both short-term motivated and sustained attention in dysphoria. To this end, the amplitude of P3/Late Positive Potential (LPP) complex and cardiac deceleration were assessed during the passive viewing of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures in 26 individuals with dysphoria and 25 healthy controls. Cluster-based unpaired t-tests revealed a significant positive centro-parieto-occipital cluster for the difference between the two groups. Specifically, individuals with dysphoria showed a smaller P3/LPP amplitude in response to both pleasant and neutral, but not unpleasant, stimuli than controls. Interestingly, whereas both groups showed cardiac deceleration when viewing pleasant compared to neutral pictures (3–6 s time window), only individuals with dysphoria showed a prolonged cardiac deceleration in re-sponse to unpleasant stimuli as compared with neutral ones. This study suggests that dysphoria is characterized by reduced motivated attentional allocation to positive information and by prolonged attention to unpleas-ant stimuli in later stages of processing. Overall, these findings provide new insights into the characterization of valence-specific attentional pro-cesses in dysphoria as potential vulnerability factors for depression.