Executive function in depression: the role of performance strategies in aiding depressed and non-depressed participants

Abstract

Objectives-Depression has been found to be associated with dysfunction in executive processes, whereas relatively automatic processes are thought to remain intact. Failure to generate or implement adequate performance strategies has been postulated in depressed participants. The present study investigated spontaneous strategy usage in depressed and control participants, and the eVectiveness of providing a hint about performance strategies. Methods-Unipolar depressed participants were compared with matched healthy controls on three tasks sensitive to executive function: memory for categorised words, response suppression, and multiple scheduling. Participants in each group were randomly allocated to strategy aid and no strategy aid conditions. Those in the strategy aid condition were given a hint about the use of an appropriate performance strategy for each task, in addition to the standard instructions given to those in the no strategy aid condition. Results-Depressed participants performed worse than controls on each of the three tasks, and were found to use appropriate performance strategies less often. Provision of strategy hints increased the use of performance strategies in two of the three tasks, memory for categorised words, and response suppression, but did not significantly improve overall performance for either group. Conclusions-The findings were consistent with the view that depressed participants fail to use appropriate performance strategies spontaneously to the same extent as controls. However, provision of information alone does not seem to be an adequate means of enhancing performance. The role of performance strategies in cognitive impairment in depression is discussed, both in terms of initiating use of such strategies and carrying these out eYciently. (J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1999;66:162-171)

Evidence of an amnesia-like cued-recall memory impairment in nondementing idiopathic Parkinson's disease

“…PD has long been associated with dysfunction in some frontal regions and there is evidence that early non-demented PD patients show prefrontal cortex atrophy (e.g., Bruck, Kurki, Kaasinen, Vahlberg, & Rinne, 2004). Although whether the frontal impairments found in PD impair executive functions that disrupt recall remains to be convincingly shown, depression is known to disrupt executive functions and to impair recall (e.g., see Channon & Green, 1999) as well as to disrupt frontal functioning (e.g., Baxter, et al, 1989) so PD patients with subclinical depressive symptoms may well suffer from executive function deficits that exacerbate their amnesia-like recall deficits that are caused by hippocampal dysfunction. In so far as subclinical depressive symptoms contributes to both prefrontal and hippocampal dysfunction, resolution would require a very large study that uses a regression analysis or the use of structural and possibly functional MRI in quite a large study to discover how strongly each structural region relates to the recollection deficit.…”

Evidence of an early information processing speed deficit in unipolar major depression

“…Unlike RT procedures the inspection time (IT) procedure is widely regarded as a measure of the speed of early stages of information processing that is not sensitive to motor speed, speed-accuracy tradeoffs or other cognitive strategies (Nettelbeck, 1987 ;Deary & Stough, 1996). Avoiding tasks in which strategies can improve performance is crucial in assessing cognition in depression, as depressed individuals are often impaired in the deployment of effective cognitive strategies (Channon & Green, 1999). IT is a measure defined as the minimum duration of stimulus presentation required for near perfect response on a two-choice visual discrimination task.…”

The Role of Blue Native/ SDS PAGE in Depression Research

“…Over the past decade, evidence has accumulated to suggest that patients with depression were significantly impaired on tasks of attention, executive function, memory and psychomotor speed. These findings suggest deficits in cognitive function, attention, visual and verbal memory and learning, as vulnerability marker for major depressive disorder (Channon & Green, 1999;Gohier et al, 2009;Weingartner et al, 1981).…”