Biased Cognitive Control of Emotional Information in Remitted Depression: A Meta-Analytic Review

• Published in: Journal of psychopathology and clinical science 2023-11, Vol.132 (8), p.921-936
• Main Authors: Wen, Alainna, Fischer, Ethan Ray, Watson, David, Yoon, K. Lira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior; Cognition; Cognitive Bias; Cognitive Control; Cognitive theories; Cognitive-behavioral factors; Depressive personality disorders; Emotional regulation; Emotions; Female; Human; Imbalance; Information processing; Information Processing Model; Major Depression; Male; Mental depression; Reaction time; Recurrence; Recurrent Depression; Remission (Disorders); Short Term Memory
• ISSN: 2769-7541; 2769-755X
• DOI: 10.1037/abn0000848

Cognitive theories of depression posit that maladaptive information processing increases the risk for depression recurrence. There is increasing theoretical and empirical support for the cognitive control of emotional information as a vulnerability factor for depression recurrence. In this investigation, findings from behavioral studies that compared the cognitive control of emotional information between participants with remitted major depressive disorder (rMDD) and healthy control (HC) participants were examined. Response times (RTs) and error rates were used as outcome variables, and aspects of clinical features, sample characteristics, and methodology and design were examined as moderating variables. The final review included 44 articles with a total of 2,081 rMDD participants and 2,285 HC participants. The two groups significantly differed in the difference score between RTs for negative and positive stimuli. Specifically, the difference in RTs between negative and positive stimuli was larger in participants with rMDD than in HC participants, indicating greater difficulty controlling irrelevant negative (vs. positive) stimuli in rMDD. Such cognitive control bias may be associated with preferential processing of negative over positive information in working memory. This imbalance may then be linked to other emotional information processing biases and emotion dysregulation, thereby increasing the risk for depression recurrence. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed. General Scientific SummaryThis systematic review suggests that people with a history of depression demonstrate greater difficulty in the cognitive control of negative than positive information. This imbalance in emotional information processing in working memory may increase the risk for depression recurrence.