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

Abstract

SummaryStudy aim. -Affective symptoms are major descriptors of depression; therefore, a lot of studies investigated emotional-responsiveness modulation in depression, and reported either a potentiation of negative affects, a reduction of positive affects, or a reduction of both positive and negative affects. On the other hand, personality was classically found to be modulated in depression, with behavioral inhibition system (BIS)-related dimensions (namely harm avoidance (HA), neuroticism) showing higher scores in depressed subjects. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between emotional responsiveness (as measured by skin conductance response [SCR]) and personality in depression. Methods. -SCR was recorded following the presentation of neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant pictures in 20 depressed subjects and 20 controls. Results. -Pleasant pictures elicited more and larger responses than unpleasant ones in control but not in depressed subjects. This effect was not modulated by personality. Moreover, depressed subjects were found to show generally faster half-recovery times and to rate emotional pictures as less arousing than control subjects and these effects disappeared when BIS-related dimensions were controlled. MOTS CLÉSDépression ; Personnalité ; Émotions ; Réponse électrodermale Résumé Objectifs. -Les symptômes affectifs sont des descripteurs majeurs de l'épisode dépressif ; pour cette raison, un grand nombre de travaux ont étudié les modulations de la réactivité émotion-nelle dans la dépression. Ils rapportent une potentialisation des affects négatifs, une diminution des affects positifs ou une réduction à la fois des affects positifs et négatifs. Par ailleurs, la personnalité est classiquement modulée dans la dépression, de sorte que les scores aux dimensions associées au système d'inhibition comportementale (SIC) (i.e. évitement du danger, neuroticisme) sont plus élevés chez les sujets déprimés. Le but de notre étude était d'investiguer les relations entre la réactivité émotionnelle (mesurée par la réponse électrodermale [RED]) et la personnalité dans la dépression. Méthodes. -La RED a été enregistrée suite à la présentation d'images neutres, plaisantes et déplaisantes chez 20 sujets déprimés et 20 sujets contrôles. Résultats. -Les images plaisantes provoquent plus de réponses et des réponses plus amples que les images déplaisantes chez les sujets contrôles mais pas chez les déprimés. Cet effet n'est pas modulé par la personnalité. Par ailleurs, les sujets déprimés montrent des temps de récupération plus courts et jugent les images émotionnelles comme associées à un éveil émotionnel moindre que les sujets contrôles et ces effets disparaissent lorsque les dimensions associées au SIC sont contrôlées. Conclusions. -Ces résultats suggèrent que les dimensions associées au SIC sont indépendantes de la diminution sélective des réponses aux images plaisantes mais sont impliquées dans la réduction globale observée des affects.

Reduced positive emotion and underarousal are uniquely associated with subclinical depression symptoms: Evidence from psychophysiology, self‐report, and symptom clusters

“…We found that mean LPP amplitude and skin conductance magnitude were negatively associated with subclinical depressive symptomatology, mirroring previous findings with P3 (Bruder et al, 1995; Diner et al, 1985; Pfefferbaum et al, 1984) and skin conductance (Iacono et al, 1983; Ward et al, 1983) in depressed participants. Furthermore, consistent with our findings for subclinical depression, depressed patients have specific skin conductance deficits to pleasant pictures (Margada & Hansenne, 2009). However, our results contrast against previous P3 work in subclinical depression (Cavanaugh & Geisler, 2006), which indicated that P3 was a better marker of low positive emotion than underarousal in subclinical depression.…”

The effects of theCACNA1Crs1006737 A/G on affective startle modulation in healthy males

“…However, compared to the other genotypes, the A allele homozygotes appraised the pleasant and unpleasant but not the neutral pictures, as less arousing and this specificity to the affective pictures argues against a general peculiarity in the way these subjects appraise along the arousal dimension. This pattern is consistent with low emotional arousal in depression [35], fits exactly with IAPS rating data from depressed patients [47] and was mediated by their depression-equivalent mood state post-testing (i.e. high discontentment-low alertness).…”

Neurocognitive processing of emotion facial expressions in individuals with self-reported depressive symptoms: The role of personality and anxiety

“…Consistently, state anxiety was associated with a general enhancement of the LPP for negative (fear and sadness) and neutral, but not happy expressions. Our results are consistent with previous observation (i.e., skin-conductance) that HA is not involved in the decreased emotional response to pleasant pictures in depressed patients [35] and suggest that negative affectivity has an independent influence on the increased attention towards negative emotions. Our results also suggest that although depressive symptoms appear to be associated with reduced processing of positive emotions, negative affectivity (high HA and high trait/state anxiety) appear to enhance the processing of negative emotions.…”