On the importance of managing negativity bias to protect cognitive control and prevent depression relapse

Many people around the world suffer from depression. Though depression can be extremely debilitating, evidence-based treatments (like cognitive-behavioral therapy) provide hope, because they can be very effective in treating the negative thinking that accompanies depression. Still, many people who recover from depression relapse later on. The reasons may be varied, but a new study suggests one possible contributor: Formerly depressed people dismiss positive emotional content too easily and hold on to negative content too strongly. “This may be one of the reasons why people who’ve had depression ruminate over and over again about things that happened in the past,” says study coauthor Lira Yoon of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The grip of negativity Researchers analyzed findings from 44 studies in which over 2,000 formerly depressed people were tested on how well they processed emotional information (in comparison to people who’d never suffered from depression). In each study, participants had to recall either emotional faces or emotional words correctly. For example, in some studies, participants were presented with a series of faces expressing happy, sad, or neutral feelings, then asked whether a new, unfamiliar face had the same expression as one they’d seen two faces earlier. In others, participants were asked to memorize a list of emotionally laden or neutral words (such as war, peace, and chair)—with some printed in red ink and some in blue ink...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Education & Lifelong Learning anti-depressants cognitive-behavioral-therapy cognitive-control depression emotional experiences Gratitude mindfulness negativity negativity bias positive Source Type: blogs