​Predicting Depression Using Angry Faces

Predicting depression using angry faces

Depression is a complex disorder about which very little is known, since many factors could interact in its causes. However, One of the keys to predicting depression could be in the type of stimuli to which we pay attention according to a team of researchers at Bringhamton University.

Investigation

This team of scientists conducted an experiment using 160 women as a sample group, 60 of whom had been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives. Each of these volunteers had to look at two types of images: a face with a neutral expression and another face that could show a state of sadness anger or joy.

Thanks to a gaze tracking system, the researchers were able to monitor the path of the eyes and see the points in each set of images that generated the most interest in women. In this way they were able to analyze the results obtained for each person and put them in relation to their history, finding that volunteers with diagnosed depression tended to look more at faces that showed anger.

Looking more at angry faces indicates greater risk of depression

However, the most interesting thing from a practical point of view is another of the results obtained. The researchers followed these 60 women in the “depression” group and checked how those who during the experiment had tended to focus more on angry faces showed a greater risk of relapsing into another crisis during the following two years. It was also recorded that these women were more likely to go through another stage of depression sooner than the rest of the volunteers.

In a way, this means that The simple act of paying attention to certain negative aspects of relationships with others could increase the chances of developing depression. Thus, creating intervention programs in which people are trained to modify their attention patterns could be useful to, so to speak, make it easier for them to see the good side of life.

But, in the short term, the most important thing is that this simple face test could help detect those cases in which there is a greater risk of developing depression and take appropriate measures before it happens.

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