Declarative Memory Impairment and Emotional Bias in Recurrent Depression with a Seasonal Pattern: The Interplay between Emotion and Cognition in Seasonal Affective Disorder

Abstract

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a subtype of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) with a seasonal pattern. Although it is a pathological condition limited to specific seasons of the year, during the symptomatic period, patients may experience a significant impairment of well-being and daily quality of life as a result of the depressed mood, associated with other symptoms defined as atypical of MDD. While extensive evidence of memory deficits has been found in MDD, explicit memory impairments in SAD are insufficiently studied. This study aims to investigate the cognitive processing of emotional stimuli in women with SAD, in particular the interplay between emotions and declarative memory. One hundred and twenty young women, screened from an initial number of 1125 university students, were divided into two groups, an experimental one that included 60 medically untreated women affected by “winter type SAD” and a control group of 60 non-SAD women. Different subjects were randomly submitted to two types of audio–visual stories, neutral or arousal, and then their memory performances were analyzed by means of a free-recall test and a recognition memory test. In both the free-recall test (p < 0.008) and in the recognition memory test (p < 0.002), the SAD group showed impaired memory performances. Taken together, our novel key findings suggest that SAD is characterized by impairment in declarative memory and attentional bias for emotional negative stimuli.

Emotional Bias among Individuals at Risk for Seasonal Affective Disorder—An EEG Study during Remission in Summer

“…We may speculate that there is a tendency for enhanced processing of negative stimuli, leading to better recognition performance in individuals with elevated seasonality scores. This is in contrast with previous research that reported lower overall recognition memory in individuals with winter depression during the symptomatic phase [30]. This divergence in results might be explained by at least two differences between the present work and prior studies.…”

“…This divergence in results might be explained by at least two differences between the present work and prior studies. Firstly, prior research [30,33] was based on data that were collected during winter, as opposed to summer in our study. Secondly, also the stimulus material differed.…”

“…Even though emotional cognitive biases have been studied thoroughly in depression, the phenomenon is less understood for seasonal depression in winter [30]. Seasonal depression or seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a mood disorder characterized by depressive episodes occurring annually at the same time of the year [31].…”

Seasonal Affective Disorder: A Narrative Review

“…They include memory impairment, lack of wellbeing, psychological morbidity, depression, and sleep problems, all of which are notably comorbid. In one of the rare experimental studies comparing adults with SAD and adults without SAD (N=120), neutral or arousal stimuli were presented [10]. The researchers reported that both attention bias to negative stimuli and declarative memory impairment occurred in those with SAD on recall and recognition tasks.…”

Effectiveness of Horticultural Therapy on Improving Memory, Alexithymia, and Severity of Symptoms in Patients with Persistent Depressive Disorder

“…Memory is one of the most important cognitive factors that is affected by depression and is associated with serious deficiencies due to depression (Nafilyan et al, 2021). Depressed people face reduced cognitive performance, major problems in everyday situations (forgetting names and misinterpreting directions), and defects in controlled processes such as attention and working memory (Iorio et al, 2022). In the study of (Vancappel et al, 2021), it is stated that persistent depression disorders can have a strong effect on memory loss, so in the tests conducted, people showed a significant difference in memory tests before and after suffering from depression.…”