Alerting Effects in Attention Based on ANT and Depression among Young Adults: A Cross-sectional Correlational Study

In depression, people experience feelings of sadness, emptiness, and irritability, as well as cognitive and behavioural changes lasting for two weeks, which are significant enough to negatively affect their daily functioning. A hallmark of depression is rumination, which involves uncontrolled, narrowly focused thoughts, often selfreferential. The Attention Network Test (ANT) is based on the attention model developed by Posner and colleagues. Scores were provided for alerting by ANT. Alerting is a necessary part of being attentive to incoming information. For assessing depression, the Beck Depression Inventory was used. The alerting performance of young adults was measured using ANT, and the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS-SF) is a short version for assessing rumination. According to the study results, depressive symptoms, rumination, and alerting attention (p < 0.01) in young adults had a significantly very strong positive correlation.