Cognition and Depression: Current Status and Future Directions

Abstract

Cognitive theories of depression posit that people's thoughts, inferences, attitudes, and interpretations, and the way in which they attend to and recall information, can increase their risk for depression. Three mechanisms have been implicated in the relation between biased cognitive processing and the dysregulation of emotion in depression: inhibitory processes and deficits in working memory, ruminative responses to negative mood states and negative life events, and the inability to use positive and rewarding stimuli to regulate negative mood. In this review, we present a contemporary characterization of depressive cognition and discuss how different cognitive processes are related not only to each other, but also to emotion dysregulation, the hallmark feature of depression. We conclude that depression is characterized by increased elaboration of negative information, by difficulties disengaging from negative material, and by deficits in cognitive control when processing negative information. We discuss treatment implications of these conclusions and argue that the study of cognitive aspects of depression must be broadened by investigating neural and genetic factors that are related to cognitive dysfunction in this disorder. Such integrative investigations should help us gain a more comprehensive understanding of how cognitive and biological factors interact to affect the onset, maintenance, and course of depression.

The indirect effect of attention bias on memory via interpretation bias: Evidence for the combined cognitive bias hypothesis in subclinical depression

“…De Raedt & Gotlib & Joormann, 2010). Although there is extensive evidence supporting attention, interpretation, and memory biases in depression, the interplay between these cognitive mechanisms is not well understood.…”

“…Various cognitive variables at the content (e.g., dysfunctional attitudes) as well as at the process (e.g., memory) level that play a detrimental role in the onset and maintenance of depressive symptoms have been identified. At the process level, considerable empirical research has shown that both subclinically and clinically depressed individuals selectively attend to negative information, tend to interpret ambiguous information in a negative manner, and recall disproportionately more negative memories (for reviews, see Gotlib & Joormann, 2010). Although there is extensive evidence supporting attention, interpretation, and memory biases in depression, the interplay between these cognitive mechanisms is not well understood.…”

Rumination mediates the relationship between impaired cognitive control for emotional information and depressive symptoms: A prospective study in remitted depressed adults

“…Several researchers have already associated depression with deficits in cognitive control (Hertel, 1997;Gotlib & Joormann, 2010). Moreover, it has been stated that these deficits are not only present during depression, but that impairments in cognitive control after remission would be predictive of future depression (Joormann & D'Avanzato, 2010).…”

Modificación de Sesgos Cognitivos (MSC) en depresión: Una revisión crítica de nuevos procedimientos para el cambio de sesgos cognitivos

“…Las personas con depresión tienen dificultades para desengancharse de material negativo una vez que éste captura su atención (Gotlib y Joormann, 2010;Sánchez, Vázquez, Marker, Lemoult y Joormann, 2013). Dicha dificultad de desenganche probablemente está también ligada a una mayor tendencia a quedarse atrapado en pensamientos rumiativos (Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco y Lyubomirsky, 2008), lo que se considera un estilo de procesamiento indicador de vulnerabilidad a la depresión (Vázquez et al, 2010).…”

“…ej. : atencionales) asociados a determinadas estructuras y circuitos cerebrales, pueden estar ligados mediante procesos complejos de feedback a procesos cognitivos más complejos y a consecuencias emocionales y conductuales características de la depresión (De Raedt y Gotlib y Joormann, 2010;Vázquez et al, 2010).…”