Emotional recognition training modifies neural response to emotional faces but does not improve mood in healthy volunteers with high levels of depressive symptoms

Abstract

IMPORTANCEDepression is a debilitating and highly prevalent mental health disorder. There is a need for new, effective, and scalable treatments for depression, and cognitive bias modification (CBM) of negative emotional processing biases has been suggested as one possibility. Such treatments may form the basis of 'digital therapeutics', that could be administered remotely and at low cost, should they prove to be effective. OBJECTIVESStudy one was designed to determine neural correlates of a recently developed CBM technique for emotion recognition training; specifically, our aim was to compare the effects of training vs placebo on pre-specified regions of interest involved in emotion processing that are known to be sensitive to antidepressant treatment. Study two aimed to investigate efficacy of training on mood measures at 2 and 6-week follow-up and was powered to replicate and extend earlier findings. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSBoth studies were double blind RCTs, in which participants completed five sessions of emotion recognition training or sham training, in the laboratory, over a one-week period. In study one (N=37), following this training, participants completed a novel emotion recognition task whilst undergoing fMRI. In study two (N=190), measures of mood were assessed post training, and at 2-week and 6-week follow-up. Both studies recruited analogue samples of healthy volunteers with high levels of depressive symptoms (BDI-ii > 14). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESIn study one, our primary outcome was neural activation in the following pre-specified regions of interest: the bilateral amygdala, the mPFC, bilateral dlPFC, and the occipital cortex. In study two, our primary outcome was depressive symptoms over the last 2 weeks assessed using the BDI-ii at 6-week follow-up. Secondary outcomes included depressive to work? A cognitive neuropsychological model of antidepressant drug action. . Improved optimization for the robust and accurate linear registration and motion correction of brain images. Neuroimage, 17(2), 825-841.

Emotion processing in depression and anxiety disorders in older adults: systematic review

“…Indeed, packages of emotion recognition training are being developed to address this issue (e.g. the study by Penton-Voak et al 78 ).…”

The face of fear and anger: Facial width-to-height ratio biases recognition of angry and fearful expressions.

“…And, dominance expressions facilitate recognition of anger (Montepare & Dobish, 2003). Conversely, feminine features, such as large eyes and round faces, are associated with neonates and lead to judgments of submissiveness (e.g., Le Gal & Bruce, 2002; Penton-Voak, Wisbey, & Pound, 2007; Zebrowitz & Montepare, 2015). Indeed, lowering one’s brow and narrowing one’s eyes can be used to signal anger.…”

Interaction between working memory load and the ability to resist interference from negative distractors in dysphoria

“…However, in a recent study investigating the effect of WM training, Jopling et al (2020) did not find any training‐related improvements in depressive symptoms or rumination in patients with depression. Empirical studies investigating the effects of WM training in dysphoria have been infrequent, and the cognitive and neural mechanism underlying the remediating effect on depressive symptoms is less investigated (Owens et al, 2013; Penton‐Voak et al, 2020). In healthy volunteers, it has been found that multiple‐session training targeting interference control of neutral distractors could increase one's ability to resist negative distractors, and the training reduced amygdala reactivity to negative distractors (Cohen et al, 2016); thus, interference control training holds great potentials for alleviating depressive symptoms in sub‐clinical and clinical samples.…”