Reduced positive attentional bias in patients with borderline personality disorder compared with non-patients: results from a free-viewing eye-tracking study

According to our results, patients with BPD show a reduced attentional preference for happy facial expression during free viewing compared to NPs. A decreased positive attentional bias at a late processing stage could be part of emotion regulation impairments and add to the vulnerability for negative affects in BPD, which represent core symptoms of the disorder. In contrast to previous eye-tracking research in BPD examining attention during evaluative processing, our dwell time data could be more indicative of self-generated, endogenously controlled attentional processes in emotion perception. The present data do not support an early vigilance for threatening social information in BPD.