Eye movement pattern and mental retardation in depression

In order to explore the mental retardation of patients with depression, the visual search paradigm was used in this study. The emotional expression (happy, sad) and neutral expression were used as interdependent or search targets in this paradigm. Subjects were asked to search the target face form a matrix containing 16 emotional faces after watching the target face. The measurement indices of the search process — scanpath duration (SPD), scanpath length (SPL), convex hull area (CHA)—were collected and analyzed. The three indexes of patients were all larger than those in control group and there were significant differences between the groups. It can be seen that two kinds of emotional faces reduce the search efficiency of depression patients and there is a slow response and mental retardation phenomenon for depression in the search process.

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