45 research outputs found
Tracking the impact of depression in a perspective-taking task
Research has identified impairments in Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities in depressed patients, particularly in relation to tasks involving empathetic responses and belief reasoning. We aimed to build on this research by exploring the relationship between depressed mood and cognitive ToM, specifically visual perspective-taking ability. High and low depressed participants were eye-tracked as they completed a perspective-taking task, in which they followed the instructions of a âdirectorâ to move target objects (e.g. a âteapot with spots onâ) around a grid, in the presence of a temporarily-ambiguous competitor object (e.g. a âteapot with stars onâ). Importantly, some of the objects in the grid were occluded from the directorâs (but not the participantâs) view. Results revealed no group-based difference in participantsâ ability to use perspective cues to identify the target object. All participants were faster to select the target object when the competitor was only available to the participant, compared to when the competitor was mutually available to the participant and director. Eye-tracking measures supported this pattern, revealing that perspective directed participantsâ visual search immediately upon hearing the ambiguous objectâs name (e.g. âteapotâ). We discuss how these results fit with previous studies that have shown a negative relationship between depression and ToM
Affective regulation of cognitive-control adjustments in remitted depressive patients after acute tryptophan depletion
Negative affect in healthy populations regulates the appraisal of demanding situations, which tunes subsequent effort mobilization and adjustments in cognitive control. In the present study, we hypothesized that dysphoria in depressed individuals similarly modulates this adaptation, possibly through a neural mechanism involving serotonergic regulation. We tested the effect of dysphoria induced by acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) in remitted depressed patients on conflict adaptation in a Simon task. ATD temporarily lowers the availability of the serotonin precursor L-Tryptophan and is known to increase depressive symptoms in approximately half of remitted depressed participants. We found that depressive symptoms induced by ATD were associated with increased conflict adaptation. Our finding extends recent observations implying an important role of affect in regulating conflict-driven cognitive control