Emotional Information Processing in Major Depression Remission and Partial Remission: Faces Come First

Abstract

Although there is considerable knowledge of the cognitive and perceptual deficits associated with the acute phases of major depressive disorder (MDD), the processes involved in remission and relapse are still being evaluated. In the present study emotional information processing in remission was investigated. A Stroop paradigm was used to compare responses from a group of remitted or partially remitted MDD patients with a matched control group. The stimuli consisted of lexical and visual facial stimuli, with one word (positive/negative) superimposed on a face (happy/sad), presented in the same trial, and being congruent or incongruent. The task was to identify the emotional content of either the face (ignoring the word), or vice versa. The results showed that both patients and controls had the same interference patterns when the target was defined by the word, and that when the target was defined by the facial expression, reaction times were faster for both groups. However, patients showed a reduced positive bias, possibly indicating dissociation between patients and control groups in terms of attention to complex emotional information. Future studies testing the sensitivity of the Emotional Stroop test in the investigation of attention to complex emotional information is needed. Clinical implications are discussed.

Key words:

• depression
• emotional processing
• emotional Stroop
• experiment
• remission

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to all participating patients and control subjects.

This study was supported by the National Program for Integrated Clinical Specialists and Ph.D. Training for Psychologists in Norway. This program is a joint cooperation between the Universities of Bergen, Oslo, and Tromsø, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim), the Regional Health Authorities, and the Norwegian Psychological Association. The program is funded jointly by the Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Health and Care Services.

The Research Council of Norway, Helse Vest, MoodNet, and the University of Bergen financially supported the study. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Notes

TargType = target type; TargVal = target valence; DistVal = distractor valence; Pat = patient; Ctl = control.