Journal of International Psychiatry

Attentional Bias Modification (ABM) training, as an innovative intervention for depression, has garnered widespread attention. ABM aims to reduce the prioritization and sustained attention towards negative stimuli by repeatedly training individuals to focus on neutral or positive stimuli, which may help alleviate depressive symptoms. This review explores the effectiveness of ABM in reducing depressive symptoms, finding that it has some antidepressant effects on both clinically depressed patients and high-risk groups. Event-related potential (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies suggest that ABM may induce changes in the early and late stage of attention processing and brain regions associated with attention control and emotional regulation. By reviewing recent clinical and neuroimaging studies, this review aims to elucidate the potential of ABM as an adjunctive treatment for depression.

Attentional Bias Modification; Depression; Clinical efficacy; Neural Mechanisms