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

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The association between depressive symptoms and executive control impairments in response to emotional and non-emotional information

Depression has been linked with impaired executive control and specific impairments in inhibition of negative material. To date, only a few studies have examined the relationship between depressive symptoms and executive functions in response to emotional information. Using a new paradigm, the Affective Shift Task (AST), the present study examined whether depressive symptoms in general, and rumination specifically, are related to impairments in inhibition and set shifting in response to emotional and non-emotional material. The main finding was that depressive symptoms in general were not related to inhibition. Set-shifting impairments were only observed in moderate to severely depressed individuals. Interestingly, rumination was related to inhibition impairments, specifically when processing negative information, as well as impaired set shifting as reflected in a larger shift cost. These results are discussed in relation to cognitive views on vulnerability for depression

Emotional interference in working memory is related to rumination

Impairments in the executive control function of working memory may underlie moodcongruent attentional and memory biases in depression. Given that the capacity to control and manipulate information held in working memory has been implicated in depressive symptoms and rumination, the present study investigated shifting capacity between internal emotional and nonemotional information in working memory. For this purpose, the Internal Shift Task (IST) was administered to a sample of dysphoric (N = 20) and non-dysphoric undergraduates (N = 20). The main finding was that depressive symptoms in general were not related to impairments in shifting. Interestingly, rumination was related to internal shifting impairments that were most pronounced when negative information was held in working memory. These findings concerning the relation between rumination and shifting impairments are discussed in relation to cognitive vulnerability for depression