Eye movement pattern of attention bias to emotional stimuli in women with high premenstrual symptoms

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) refers to a group of symptoms linked to the menstrual cycle. Women with PMS have cognitive mode of rumination, which leads to their attention bias to emotional stimuli. This study investigated the biases for emotional information in women with high premenstrual symptoms (HPMS) compared with women with low premenstrual symptoms (LPMS). A total of 38 women with HPMS and 44 women with LPMS completed self-report questionnaires and a free viewing task with eye-tracking technology. The questionnaire results indicate that women in the HPMS group had higher levels of rumination than those in the LPMS group. The eye-tracking results show that women in the HPMS group had an orientation bias towards negative emotional stimuli in the early cognitive process. In the late cognitive process, women in the HPMS group had accelerated attentional disengagement to positive emotional stimuli and difficult attentional disengagement to negative emotional stimuli. Further correlation analysis revealed positive relationships between the scores of initial fixation latency bias of positive pictures in premenstrual phase and the scores of symptom rumination in both groups and between the scores of initial fixation latency bias of positive pictures in premenstrual phase and the scores of brooding in HPMS group. This study used a retrospective questionnaire to assess the symptoms of PMS. Women with HPMS had impaired attentional engagement and disengagement to emotional stimuli compared with women with LPMS, and it may be related to their cognitive mode of rumination.