Emotion Context Insensitivity in Major Depressive Disorder.

Abstract

The present study tested 3 competing views of how depression alters emotional reactivity: positive attenuation (reduced positive), negative potentiation (increased negative), and emotion context insensitivity (ECI; reduced positive and negative). Normative and idiographic stimuli that elicited happy, sad, and neutral states were presented to currently depressed, formerly depressed, and healthy control individuals while experiential, behavioral, and autonomic responses were measured. Currently depressed individuals reported less sadness reactivity and less happiness experience across all conditions than did the other participants, and they exhibited a more dysphoric response to idiographic than to normative stimuli. Overall, data provide partial support for the positive attenuation and ECI views. Depression may produce mood-state-dependent changes in emotional reactivity that are most pronounced in emotion experience reports.

Autonomic aspect of emotional response in depressed patients: Relationships with personality

“…ANOVA conducted with response frequency as the dependent variable showed a main effect of picture category (F [2,76] = 7.68, p = 0.001), reflecting that pleasant and unpleasant pictures induced more responses that neutral ones (t [38] = 4.75, p < 0.001 ; t [38] = 4.62, p < 0.001). Although the group × picture category did not reach significance (F [2,76] = 0.99, p = 0.37) but because of specific expectations regarding emotional differences between depressed and control subjects, paired comparisons were carried out, and showed that pleasant pictures elicited more responses than the unpleasant ones in control (t [38] = 2.66, p = 0.01) but not in depressed subjects (t [38] = 0.11, p = 0.91).…”

“…ANOVA conducted with response amplitude as the dependent variable showed a main effect of picture category [38] = 2.76, p < 0.01) but not in depressed subjects (t [38] = 0.54, p = 0.59). These effects were not modulated when relevant personality scores were controlled (Fig.…”

“…Although the group × picture category did not reach significance (F [2,76] = 0.99, p = 0.37) but because of specific expectations regarding emotional differences between depressed and control subjects, paired comparisons were carried out, and showed that pleasant pictures elicited more responses than the unpleasant ones in control (t [38] = 2.66, p = 0.01) but not in depressed subjects (t [38] = 0.11, p = 0.91). These effects were not modulated when relevant personality score were controlled.…”

“…Some of these report either increased negative affects [31,43], decreased positive affects [43], or an overall decreased emotional responsiveness (i.e. a decrease in both positive and negative affects [1,16,28,[38][39][40]). A recent metaanalysis conducted over 19 studies concluded that both negative and positive affects would be reduced in major depressive disorders, with positive affects being the most reduced, irrespective of the measured response (reported affects, expressive response, and peripheral response) [6].…”

Wanting and liking in dysphoria: Cardiovascular and facial EMG responses during incentive processing

“…For now, two elements have to be considered: On the one hand, depression is characterized by avoidance behavior (see Ottenbreit & Dobson, 2004;Trew, 2011, for reviews), which goes along with a preserved motivation to avoid punishments. On the other hand, avoidance behavior in depression is of a passive, maladaptive nature: Indeed, depression is characterized by disengagement (Rottenberg, Gross, & Gotlib, 2005), by hopelessness (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978), and by a strong behavioral inhibition system, which leads to passive avoidance (Fowles, 1994). Taking these elements together, we expect individuals with depression to be motivated to avoid a punishment but to show a passive avoidance behavior in anticipation of that punishment, which prevents them from successfully avoiding it.…”