The Missing Link: Attentional Control and Media Multi-Tasking in Depressive Patients

A recent article in Science Daily highlights a study that found a correlation between depression and using multiple forms of media. Researchers in the article have yet to determine the causal relationship of this finding. Dr. Silton’s study outlined in her paper, “Depression and Anxious Apprehension Distinguish Frontocingulate Cortical Activity During Top-Down Attentional Control” might have the answer the researchers are looking for.

Mark Becker from Michigan State University lead the study that found a high correlation between depression and anxiety and a high use of multiple media outlets.  It seemed that the patients who suffered from depression and anxiety were constantly multi-tasking between various forms of media including texting, television, music, cell phones, web surfing, computer and video games, etc. Researchers could not determine whether depression and anxiety were causing the patients to turn to media multi-tasking as a form of distraction, or if the media multi-tasking was causing the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Dr. Silton highlights some possible causes to their dilemma with her work examining the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. She believes this network is crucial for top-down attentional control, a processing ability that is greatly lacking in patients with depression and anxiety.  Her findings involving the Stroop task revealed that high levels of depression do affect the frontocingulate network involved in top-down attentional control. This means that people suffering from anxiety or depression have a harder time focusing their attention. This could also explain why researchers at Michigan State found a large correlation between depressive patients and multi-tasking. Depression and anxiety are affecting their ability to focus their attention. Silton et al. (2011) states,

“If differential patterns of attentional control difficulties can be identified in depression and anxiety, it will inform evidence-based treatments for depression and anxiety that involve training individuals to use attentional control methods, such as cognitive control therapy (Siegle, Ghinassi, & Thase, 2007) and mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002)”.

For people with depression turning to multi-media use, treatments involving such outlets might be the best method to help them. 

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121204145557.htm