Abstract
Translational research refers to the application of basic science to address clinical problems and acquire knowledge that can be used to guide and refine clinical practice. This special issue of Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience seeks to explore and integrate some of the most promising findings offered by recent cognitive and affective neuroscience studies in hopes of filling the gap between basic and applied research, thereby heightening our understanding of vulnerability for depression. The studies presented in this special issue focus specifically on attentional processes. We solicited contributions from leading researchers involved in basic cognitive and neuroscience research investigating processes underlying depression-related disturbances in emotion processing. In this introductory article, we present an integrative overview to demonstrate how these specific contributions might be valuable for translational research.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: 1. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9, 324–333.
Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: International Universities Press.
Beck, A. T. (2008). The evolution of the cognitive model of depression and its neurobiological correlates. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 969–977.
Beevers, C. G., & Carver, C. S. (2003). Attentional bias and mood persistence as prospective predictors of dysphoria. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 27, 619–637.
Borkovec, T. D. (1994). The nature, functions, and origins of worry. In G. C. L. Davey & F. Tallis (Eds.), Worrying: Perspectives on theory, assessment, and treatment (pp. 5–33). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley.
Browning, M., Holmes, E. A., & Harmer, C. J. (2010). The modification of attentional bias to emotional information: A review of the techniques, mechanisms, and relevance to emotional disorders. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 8–20.
Bush, G., Luu, P., & Posner, M. I. (2000). Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 215–222.
Cuijpers, P., van Straten, A., Bohlmeijer, E., Hollon, S. D., & Andersson, G. (in press). The effects of psychotherapy for adult depression are overestimated: A meta-analysis of study quality and effect size. Psychological Medicine.
De Raedt, R. (2006). Activation of implicit self-schemas and a difficulty to disengage from negative cognitions in depression: An experimental psychopathology approach. Psychologica Belgica, 46, 117–130.
De Raedt, R., & Koster, E. H. W. (2010). Understanding vulnerability for depression from a cognitive neuroscience perspective: A re appraisal of attentional factors and a new conceptual framework. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 50–70.
Dimidjian, S., Hollon, S. D., Dobson, K. S., Schmaling, K. B., Kohlenberg, R. J., Addis, M. E., et al. (2006). Randomized trial of behavioral activation, cognitive therapy, and antidepressant medication in the acute treatment of adults with major depression. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 74, 658–670.
Ellenbogen, M. A., Carson, R. J., & Pishva, R. (2010). Automatic emotional information processing and the cortisol response to acute psychosocial stress. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 71–82.
Engels, A. S., Heller, W., Spielberg, J. M., Warren, S. L., Sutton, B. P., Banich, M. T., & Miller, G. A. (2010). Co-occurring anxiety influences patterns of brain activity in depression. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 141–156.
Engle, R. W. (2002). Working memory capacity as executive attention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 19–23.
Foa, E. B., & Kozak, M. J. (1986). Emotional processing of fear: Exposure to corrective information. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 20–35.
Forbes, E. E., Olino, T. M., Ryan, N. D., Birmaher, B., Axelson, D., Moyles, D. L., & Dahl, R. E. (2010). Reward-related brain function as a predictor of treatment response in adolescents with major depressive disorder. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 107–118.
Fu, C. H. Y., Williams, S. C. R., Cleare, A. J., Brammer, M. J., Walsh, N. D., Kim, J., et al. (2004). Attenuation of the neural response to sad faces in major depression by antidepressant treatment: A prospective, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 61, 877–889.
Gerra, G., Leonardi, C., Cortese, E., Zaimovic, A., Dell’ Agnello, G., Manfredini, M., et al. (2009). Childhood neglect and parental care perception in cocaine addicts: Relation with psychiatric symptoms and biological correlates. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 33, 601–610.
Goodwin, R. D., Jacobi, F., Bittner, A., & Wittchen, H. U. (2006). Epidemiology of mood disorders. In D. J. Stein, D. J. Kupfer, & A. F. Schatzberg (Eds.), Textbook of mood disorders (pp. 33–54). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Gotlib, I. H., Krasnoperova, E., Yue, D. N., & Joormann, J. (2004). Attentional biases for negative interpersonal stimuli in clinical depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 127–135.
Hasher, L., & Zacks, R. T. (1979). Automatic and effortful processes in memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108, 356–388.
Holmes, A. J., & Pizzagalli, D. A. (2008). Spatiotemporal dynamics of error processing dysfunctions in major depressive disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65, 179–188.
Holmes, A. J., & Pizzagalli, D. A. (2010). Effects of task-relevant incentives on the electrophysiological correlates of error processing in major depressive disorder. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 119–128.
Ingram, R. E., Miranda, J., & Segal, Z. V. (1998). Cognitive vulnerability to depression. New York: Guilford.
Jones, N. P., Siegle, G. J., Muelly, E. R., Haggerty, A., & Ghinassi, F. (2010). Poor performance on cognitive tasks in depression: Doing too much or not enough? Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 129–140.
Joormann, J., Hertel, P. T., Brozovich, F., & Gotlib, I. H. (2005). Remembering the good, forgetting the bad: Intentional forgetting of emotional material in depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 640–648.
Joormann, J., Nee, D. E., Berman, M. G., Jonides, J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2010). Interference resolution in major depression. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 21–33.
Kirsch, I., Deacon, B. J., Huedo-Medina, T. B., Scoboria, A., Moore, T. J., & Johnson, B. T. (2008). Initial severity and antidepressant benefits: A meta-analysis of data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. PLoS Medicine, 5, e45.
Koole, S. L. (2009). The psychology of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Cognition & Emotion, 23, 4–41.
Leyman, L., De Raedt, R., Schacht, R., & Koster, E. H. W. (2007). Attentional biases for angry faces in unipolar depression. Psychological Medicine, 37, 393–402.
Leyman, L., De Raedt, R., Vanderhasselt, M. A., & Baeken, C. (in press). Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on the attentional processing of emotional information in major depression: A pilot study. Psychiatry Research.
Lyubomirsky, S., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1993). Self-perpetuating properties of dysphoric rumination. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 65, 339–349.
MacLeod, C., Rutherford, E., Campbell, L., Ebsworthy, G., & Holker, L. (2002). Selective attention and emotional vulnerability: Assessing the causal basis of their association through the experimental manipulation of attentional bias. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 107–123.
Maheu, F. S., Dozier, M., Guyer, A. E., Mandell, D., Peloso, E., Poeth, K., et al. (2010). A preliminary study of medial temporal lobe function in youths with a history of caregiver deprivation and emotional neglect. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 34–49.
Masten, C. L., Guyer, A. E., Hodgdon, H. B., McClure, E. B., Charney, D. S., Ernst, M., et al. (2008). Recognition of facial emotions among maltreated children with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32, 139–153.
Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (2002). Induced processing biases have causal effects on anxiety. Cognition & Emotion, 16, 331–354.
Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (2005). Cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 167–195.
Monk, C. S., Klein, R. G., Telzer, E. H., Schroth, E. A., Mannuzza, S., Moulton, J. L., III, et al. (2008). Amygdala and nucleus accumbens activation to emotional facial expressions in children and adolescents at risk for major depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 90–98.
Nolen-Hoeksema, N. (2000). The role of rumination in depressive disorders and mixed anxiety/depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 504–511.
Pereira, M. G., de Oliveira, L., Erthal, F. S., Joffily, M., Mocaiber, I. F., Volchan, E., & Pessoa, L. (2010). Emotion affects action: Midcingulate cortex as a pivotal node of interaction between negative emotion and motor signals. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 94–106.
Phan, K. L., Wager, T. D., Taylor, S. F., & Liberzon, I. (2004). Functional neuroimaging studies of human emotions. Central Nervous System Spectrums, 9, 258–266.
Phillips, M. L., Drevets, W. C., Rauch, S. L., & Lane, R. (2003). Neurobiology of emotion perception II: Implications for major psychiatric disorders. Biological Psychiatry, 54, 515–528.
Pizzagalli, D. A., Dillon, D. G., Bogdan, R., & Holmes, A. J. (in press). Reward and punishment processing in the human brain: Clues from affective neuroscience and implications for depression research. In O. Vartanian & D. R. Mandel (Eds.), Neuroscience of decision making. New York: Psychology Press.
Pourtois, G., Spinelli, L., Seeck, M., & Vuilleumier, P. (2010). Temporal precedence of emotion over attention modulations in the lateral amygdala: Intracranial ERP evidence from a patient with temporal lobe epilepsy. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 83–93.
Ressler, K. J., & Mayberg, H. S. (2007). Targeting abnormal neural circuits in mood and anxiety disorders: From the laboratory to the clinic. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 1116–1124.
Siegle, G. J., Ghinassi, F., & Thase, M. E. (2007). Neurobehavioral therapies in the 21st century: Summary of an emerging field and an extended example of cognitive control training for depression. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 31, 235–262.
Siegle, G. J., Thompson, W., Carter, C. S., Steinhauer, S. R., & Thase, M. E. (2007). Increased amygdala and decreased dorsolateral prefrontal BOLD responses in unipolar depression: Related and independent features. Biological Psychiatry, 61, 198–209.
Taylor, J. G., & Fragopanagos, N. F. (2005). The interaction of attention and emotion. Neural Networks, 18, 353–369.
Turner, E. H., Matthews, A. M., Linardatos, E., Tell, R. A., & Rosenthal, R. (2008). Selective publication of antidepressant trials and its influence on apparent efficacy. New England Journal of Medicine, 358, 252–260.
Vanderhasselt, M. A., & De Raedt, R. (2009). Impairments in cognitive control persist during remission from depression and are related to the number of past episodes: An event related potentials study. Biological Psychology, 81, 169–176.
Vanderhasselt, M. A., De Raedt, R., Leyman, L., & Baeken, C. (2009). Acute effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on attentional control are related to antidepressant outcomes. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, 34, 119–126.
Wadlinger, H. A., & Isaacowitz, D. M. (2008). Looking happy: The experimental manipulation of a positive visual attention bias. Emotion, 8, 121–126.
Williams, J. M. G., Watts, F. N., MacLeod, C., & Mathews, A. (1988). Cognitive psychology and emotional disorders. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This work was supported by Scientific Research Community (Automatic Processes in Psychopathology and Health-Related Behavior) Grant W000107N funded by the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
De Raedt, R., Koster, E.H.W. & Joormann, J. Attentional control in depression: A translational affective neuroscience approach. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 10, 1–7 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/CABN.10.1.1
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/CABN.10.1.1