Attention biases for loss-related stimuli in prolonged grief disorder: A cognitive assessment of mechanisms using eye tracking

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Hannah Comteße; Professorin Dr. Christina Pfeuffer
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 558358291

Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is an impairing and persistent grief reaction that has been included as a new diagnosis in ICD-11. Cognitive models of PGD propose that loss-related attention biases contribute to the occurrence and maintenance of the disorder. Furthermore, different patterns of attention allocation with regard to stimuli related to the deceased person (e.g., photo albums) and stimuli associated with the death or its circumstances (e.g., cemeteries) are assumed. Previous studies showed selective attention allocation with regard to the two types of loss-related stimuli. However, existing research has several limitations. Reaction time tasks were used almost exclusively, which cannot fully elucidate underlying mechanisms of attentional control. Different types of loss-related stimuli have not been contrasted directly, leaving differential effects and corresponding mechanisms unexplored, and studies so far have rarely used idiosyncratic stimulus material, although relevant stimuli are highly individual. Prior studies were based mostly on individuals with subclinical PGD and lacked appropriate control groups. To overcome these limitations and systematically investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying PGD, the present project combines basic cognitive research with clinical research by using innovative cognitive paradigms and eye tracking. The project aims at investigating processes of reactive (pro-/antisaccades) and proactive attentional control (anticipatory saccades) by contrasting stimuli related to the death and the deceased person with stimuli related to a living attachment figure, the participants themselves, and neutral content. A group of persons with PGD will be compared with bereaved persons without PGD and non-bereaved healthy controls (total N = 144) in order to examine the specificity of attention allocation patterns. Eye tracking data will allow to examine underlying attentional mechanisms. The results of this project will improve the fundamental understanding of attention allocation in PGD and thus help to improve disorder models and to detect potential targets for tailored interventions. The systematic, translational combination of clinical and cognitive research methods further has the potential to stimulate comparable studies focusing on other mental disorders.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Rita Rosner