Reduced Perceptual Asymmetries in Depressed Females

The present study used the grayscales task to investigate a possible association between depression and free-viewing perceptual asymmetries. Three hundred and eight undergraduates (males = 154; females = 154) performed the grayscales task and demonstrated an overall leftward bias. This leftward bias was negatively associated with depressive symptoms in female participants, but not in male participants. These results suggest that for females, depression is associated with deficits in spatial attention mechanisms that normally are localized predominantly in the right hemisphere, deficits which serve to reduce the leftward attentional bias that is typically observed in the grayscales task.