Further evidence of attention bias for negative information in late life depression

Broomfield, Niall M.; Davies, Rachel; Macmahon, Kenneth; Ali, Farah; Cross, Susan

doi:10.1002/gps.1655

Cited by 37 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(40 reference statements)

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“…Nevertheless, it has consistently been demonstrated that elderly patients with emotional disorders, such as geriatric depression or geriatric anxiety disorder, show marked executive control dysfunctions together with fronto-limbic abnormalities [24], [72]–[74]. Moreover, these patients are typically more strongly distracted by negative stimuli, which is paralleled by decreased prefrontal attention control activity [75], [76]. Taking these findings into account, we propose that the ability to selectively recruit cognitive control processes to assist emotional well-being might be an important resilience factor for emotional health in aging.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective Control of Attention Supports the Positivity Effect in Aging

et al. 2014

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There is emerging evidence for a positivity effect in healthy aging, which describes an age-specific increased focus on positive compared to negative information. Life-span researchers have attributed this effect to the selective allocation of cognitive resources in the service of prioritized emotional goals. We explored the basic principles of this assumption by assessing selective attention and memory for visual stimuli, differing in emotional content and self-relevance, in young and old participants. To specifically address the impact of cognitive control, voluntary attentional selection during the presentation of multiple-item displays was analyzed and linked to participants' general ability of cognitive control. Results revealed a positivity effect in older adults' selective attention and memory, which was particularly pronounced for self-relevant stimuli. Focusing on positive and ignoring negative information was most evident in older participants with a generally higher ability to exert top-down control during visual search. Our findings highlight the role of controlled selectivity in the occurrence of a positivity effect in aging. Since the effect has been related to well-being in later life, we suggest that the ability to selectively allocate top-down control might represent a resilience factor for emotional health in aging.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective Control of Attention Supports the Positivity Effect in Aging

et al. 2014

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“…Similarly, depression was associated with a bias toward negative congruent information, mostly due to a difficulty in disengaging from information with a negative valence (for reviews see Gotlib et al, 2004; Mathews and MacLeod, 2005; Clark et al, 2009; Gotlib and Joormann, 2010; Disner et al, 2011; Roiser et al, 2012). Relatedly, in the emotional Stroop task, in which participants’ response time to name the color of an emotional written word indicates their ability to disengage from the emotional context, depressed patients were slower to name the color of negative emotional words, compared to non-depressed controls (Gotlib and McCann, 1984; Broomfield et al, 2007). …”

Section: Perception Of Facial Expression and Its Role In Vulnerabilitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project PAVE (Personality And Vision Experimentation): role of personal and interpersonal resilience in the perception of emotional facial expression

Tanzer

Shahar

Avidan

2014

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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The aim of the proposed theoretical model is to illuminate personal and interpersonal resilience by drawing from the field of emotional face perception. We suggest that perception/recognition of emotional facial expressions serves as a central link between subjective, self-related processes and the social context. Emotional face perception constitutes a salient social cue underlying interpersonal communication and behavior. Because problems in communication and interpersonal behavior underlie most, if not all, forms of psychopathology, it follows that perception/recognition of emotional facial expressions impacts psychopathology. The ability to accurately interpret one’s facial expression is crucial in subsequently deciding on an appropriate course of action. However, perception in general, and of emotional facial expressions in particular, is highly influenced by individuals’ personality and the self-concept. Herein we briefly outline well-established theories of personal and interpersonal resilience and link them to the neuro-cognitive basis of face perception. We then describe the findings of our ongoing program of research linking two well-established resilience factors, general self-efficacy (GSE) and perceived social support (PSS), with face perception. We conclude by pointing out avenues for future research focusing on possible genetic markers and patterns of brain connectivity associated with the proposed model. Implications of our integrative model to psychotherapy are discussed.

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“…As expected, negative emotion conditions revealed greater interference or reduced cognitive control compared with neutral emotion conditions in clinically anxious older adults. On the emotional Stroop task, older individuals with MDD with anxiety (vs. non-depressed and non-anxious controls; Broomfield et al, 2007) or high worry (vs. moderate or low worry; Price et al, 2012) demonstrated slower response times for negative words compared with neutral words. Overall, older individuals with clinical levels of anxiety, as determined by a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text revision, American Psychiatric Association, 2000) diagnosis of GAD or MDD with anxiety, or based on elevated self-reported worry symptoms, may be predisposed to experience greater distraction to negative vs. neutral emotional stimuli.…”

Section: Late-life Anxiety and Cognitive Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Converging evidence from multiple studies supports these theories by associating impaired cognitive control ability with self-reported anxiety (Beaudreau & O’Hara, 2009) and anxiety status in older individuals (Broomfield, Davies, MacMahon, Ali, & Cross, 2007; Mantella et al, 2007; see Price & Mohlman, 2007 for an alternative view). The term ‘cognitive control’ refers to processes associated with goal-directed behavior in a mechanistic definition of ‘executive functions’ (Miller & Cohen, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of a cognitive neuroscience perspective of cognitive control to late-life anxiety

Beaudreau

MacKay‐Brandt

Reynolds

2013

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

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Recent evidence supports a negative association between anxiety and cognitive control. Given age-related reductions in some cognitive abilities and the relation of late life anxiety to cognitive impairment, this negative association may be particularly relevant to older adults. This critical review conceptualizes anxiety and cognitive control from cognitive neuroscience and cognitive aging theoretical perspectives and evaluates the methodological approaches and measures used to assess cognitive control. Consistent with behavioral investigations of young adults, the studies reviewed implicate specific and potentially negative effects of anxiety on cognitive control processes in older adults. Hypotheses regarding the role of both aging and anxiety on cognitive control, the bi-directionality between anxiety and cognitive control, and the potential for specific symptoms of anxiety (particularly worry) to mediate this association, are specified and discussed.

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Further evidence of attention bias for negative information in late life depression

Cited by 37 publications

References 35 publications

Selective Control of Attention Supports the Positivity Effect in Aging

Selective Control of Attention Supports the Positivity Effect in Aging

Project PAVE (Personality And Vision Experimentation): role of personal and interpersonal resilience in the perception of emotional facial expression

Application of a cognitive neuroscience perspective of cognitive control to late-life anxiety

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