A review of attentional bias modification trainings for depression

Negative attentional bias is a basic character of depression. The attentional bias modification training (ABMT), being a highly promising and easy-to-use depression intervention technique, has attracted much attention to alleviate depressive symptoms in recent years. However, the effectiveness of ABMT programs was mixed across studies, since it remained unclear the underlying mechanisms of ABMT on alleviating depressive symptoms. We systematically analyzed the main ABMT paradigms to clarify possible mechanisms of effective training and reasons of ineffective training. Valid ABMT programs might alleviate depressive symptoms through regulating self-related rumination or two subcomponents of attentional bias: facilitated attention and impaired attentional disengagement. The reasons for the invalidity of ABMT mainly included the suboptimal design of training procedures, mixed effects of participants' personal characteristics, and the unclear relationship between attentional bias and depression. The ABMT is promising for alleviating depressive symptoms, but training procedures are required to be improved to obtain stable training effects.

Automated summary

Negative attentional bias is a characteristic of depression. Attentional bias modification training (ABMT) has shown promise in alleviating depressive symptoms, but its effectiveness varies. ABMT programs may work by regulating self-related rumination or two subcomponents of attentional bias: facilitated attention and impaired attentional disengagement. The suboptimal design of training procedures, mixed effects of participants' characteristics, and the unclear relationship between attentional bias and depression are reasons for the mixed results. ABMT holds promise for alleviating depressive symptoms, but improvements in training procedures are needed for stable effects.