Cognitive Mechanisms of Treatment in Depression

Mental health vulnerability is reflected by negative emotional biases, impaired executive control, and heightened emotional reactivity, which may predispose to both maladaptive SNS use and the onset of mental illness.

“Also, mental health vulnerability is reflected by the development of negative emotional biases, impaired executive control, and heightened emotional reactivity, which may predispose to both maladaptive SNS use and the onset of mental illness [51].”

Negative bias in emotional processing in depression has been reliably demonstrated across domains of perception, attention, memory, and reward.

“Negative bias in emotional processing seen in depression has been reliably demonstrated across domains of emotional cognitive processing, including perception, attention, memory, and reward”

People with depression show preferential memory for negative emotional information in emotional word-based memory encoding (ECAT) and immediate and delayed recall (EREC) tasks.

“they show preferential memory for negative emotional information in emotional word-based memory encoding (ECAT) and immediate and delayed recall (EREC) tasks”

People with depression are more likely to perceive and categorize ambiguous facial expressions as negative in the Facial Emotions Recognition Test (FERT).

“people with depression are more likely to perceive and categorize ambiguous facial expressions as negative in the Facial Emotions Recognition Test (FERT)”

People with depression take longer to name the colour of negative emotional words in the emotional Stroop task.

“take longer to name the colour of negative emotional words in the emotional Stroop task”

People with depression are slower to respond to happy targets in the emotional Go/No-Go task.

“are slower to respond to happy targets in the emotional Go/No-Go task”

Medications have been suggested to act on the structures directly involved in negative bias formation, primarily on the extended limbic system ('bottom-up' effect).

“Medications, on the other hand, have been suggested to act on the structures directly involved in the negative bias formation, primarily on the extended limbic system (‘bottom-up’ effect)”

Surrogate markers need to be relatively easy to measure and reliably related to the outcome.

“Surrogate markers need to be relatively easy to measure and reliably related to the outcome (Roiser et al. 2012).”

One hypothesis for the mechanism of action in neuropsychiatric disorders is that strengthened serotonergic neurotransmission induces neuroplasticity and, in turn, improves cognitive and emotion processing.

“One hypothesis for the mechanism of action in neuropsychiatric disorders is that strengthened serotonergic neurotransmission induces neuroplasticity and, in turn, improves cognitive and emotion processing [10–12].”

The direct effect of effective antidepressant treatment is to modify biases in emotional processing.

“The key hypothesis underlying this work has been that the direct effect of antidepressant treatment is to modify emotional processing.10-12”

Changes in the cognitive processing of emotional stimuli are linked to the direct pharmacological action of antidepressant treatment but are dissociated in time from mood changes, which appear some weeks later.

“These changes in the cognitive processing of emotional stimuli are linked to the direct pharmacological action of the treatment, but they are dissociated in time from changes in mood which appear some weeks later in treatment.”

Depression is conceived as a network level disorder, with multiple brain regions including frontal, striatal, and limbic areas in interaction accounting for the symptoms of the disorder.

“At the functional level, depression is conceived of as a network level disorder, meaning that multiple brain regions including frontal, striatal, and limbic areas in interaction account for the symptoms of the disorder.11,12,39-41”

The modification of emotional bias may be the final common pathway by which all antidepressant drug treatments exert their positive effects on mood.

“It has been suggested that the modification of emotional bias may be the final common pathway by which all antidepressant drug treatments exert their positive effects on mood,10-12 and we have reviewed evidence from drugs with diverse pharmacological actions to support this.”

According to the 'cognitive neuropsychological' model of depression, negative affective biases play a central part in the development of depression.

“according to the ‘cognitive neuropsychological’ model of depression, negative affective biases play a central part in the development of depression [222,241].”

Negative information processing biases are important in depression.

“negative information processing biases are also important”