Frontiers in psychiatry
The dynamic features of long-term habituation of negative emotions: evidence from eye-tracking and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis research
By Wang F, Yang S, Li L and 6 others.
Abstract
Objectives
Negative emotional habituation (NEH) plays a crucial role in individuals' survival and adaptation. However, systematic research on long-term negative emotional habituation remains limited. This study aimed to explore the dynamics of the habituation process during prolonged repeated exposure to negative stimuli, from the perspectives of eye-tracking and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses.
Methods
Employing a 2 × 7 mixed factorial design, we enrolled 50 healthy male undergraduates and randomly assigned them to moderate- or high-intensity negative-image groups. Negative stimulus intensity served as the between-subject factor, and repeated exposure across seven consecutive daily testing sessions served as the within-subject factor. A single-blind procedure was adopted. Baseline trait anxiety and resilience were assessed. On each testing day, we concurrently obtained subjective ratings (valence, arousal), eye-tracking indices [mean fixation duration (MFD), pupil size], and salivary cortisol samples.