Effectiveness of Personal Relevance of Visual Autobiographical Stimuli in Positive Emotions Induction

Effectiveness of the Level of Personal Relevance of Visual Autobiographical Stimuli in the Induction of Positive Emotions in Young and Older Adults: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: The ability to retrieve specific memories is a cognitive and emotional protective factor. Among the most effective techniques to generate autobiographical memories is the use of audio-visual stimuli, particularly images. Developing and improving techniques that facilitate the generation of such memories could be highly effective in the prevention of depressive symptoms, especially in the elderly population. The aim of the present study is to examine how the level of personal relevance of pictures as autobiographical memory cues to induce positive emotions may affect an individual's emotion regulation.

Methods: The participants, 120 older adults aged 65 and over and 120 young adults aged between 18 and 35, of both sexes and without depressive symptoms, will be induced to a negative mood state by means of viewing a film clip. Following the negative mood induction, the participants will be shown positive images according to experimental group to which they were randomly assigned (high personal relevance: personal autobiographical photographs; medium personal relevance: pictures of favourite locations associated with specific positive autobiographical memories; and low personal relevance: positive images from the International Affective Picture System). The investigators will analyse the differences in subjective (responses to questionnaires) and objectives measures (EEG signal, heart rate variability and electrodermal activity) between the groups before and after the induction of negative affect and following the recall of positive memories.

Discussion: The use of images associated with specific positive autobiographical memories may be an effective input for inducing positive mood states, which has potentially important implications for their use as a cognitive behavioural technique to treat emotional disorders, such as depression, which are highly prevalent among older adults.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Older adults will present no symptoms of cognitive impairment. The self-administered Test Your Memory (TYM) will be used to assess cognitive performance [79,80].
2. Absence of depressive symptomatology, which will be assessed using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-Depression [81].
3. Given the high comorbidity between anxiety and depression [82,83], it was decided that both young and older participants should present no symptoms of anxiety. This will be assessed using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-Anxiety [81].
4. No sensory deficits that might impact performance in the experiment and the psychological tests.
5. Sufficient literacy skills to understand the instructions for the experiment and the psychological tests.
6. Signed informed consent.