scholarly journals No antidepressant-like acute effects of bright light on emotional information processing in healthy volunteers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Kaltenboeck ◽  
Tereza Ruzickova ◽  
Veronika Breunhölder ◽  
Tarek Zghoul ◽  
Philip J. Cowen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Healthy Volunteer ◽  
Healthy Volunteers ◽  
Antidepressant Drugs ◽  
Bright Light ◽  
Clinical Effects ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Subjective State ◽  
Emotional Information Processing

Abstract Rationale Bright light treatment (BLT) is an efficacious antidepressant intervention, but its mechanism of action is not well understood. Antidepressant drugs acutely affect how emotional information is processed, pushing the brain to prioritise positive relative to negative input. Whether BLT could have a similar effect is not known to date. Objective To test whether BLT acutely influences emotional information processing similar to antidepressant drugs, using an established healthy volunteer assay. Methods Following a double-blind, parallel-group design, 49 healthy volunteers (18–65 years, 26 females) were randomly allocated to 60-min BLT (≥ 10,000 lux) or sham-placebo treatment early in the morning in autumn/winter. Immediately after treatment, emotional information processing was assessed using the Oxford Emotional Test Battery, a validated set of behavioural tasks tapping into emotional information processing in different cognitive domains. Participants also completed questionnaires before and after treatment to assess changes in subjective state. Results The BLT group did not show significantly more positively biased emotional information processing compared to the placebo group (p > 0.05 for all measures). After adjustment for pre-treatment scores, there were also no significant post-treatment differences between groups in subjective state (p > 0.05 for all measures). Conclusions BLT did not show immediate effects on emotional information processing in an established healthy volunteer assay. Thus, BLT might exert its clinical effects through a different (cognitive) mechanism than other antidepressant interventions. Future studies should corroborate this finding including clinical populations and more intensive treatment regimes, and control for potential chronobiological effects.

scholarly journals An Experimental Medicine Investigation of the Effects of Subacute Pramipexole Treatment on Emotional Information Processing in Healthy Volunteers

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 800
Author(s):  
Marieke Annie Gerdine Martens ◽  
Alexander Kaltenboeck ◽  
Don Chamith Halahakoon ◽  
Michael Browning ◽  
Philip J. Cowen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Healthy Volunteers ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Antidepressant Drugs ◽  
Experimental Medicine ◽  
Clinical Effects ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Negative Appraisal ◽  
Emotional Information Processing

Treatment with the dopamine D2/D3 receptor agonist pramipexole has demonstrated promising clinical effects in patients with depression. However, the mechanisms through which pramipexole might alleviate depressive symptoms are currently not well understood. Conventional antidepressant drugs are thought to work by biasing the processing of emotional information in favour of positive relative to negative appraisal. In this study, we used an established experimental medicine assay to explore whether pramipexole treatment might have a similar effect. Employing a double-blind, parallel-group design, 40 healthy volunteers (aged 18 to 43 years, 50% female) were randomly allocated to 12 to 15 days of treatment with either pramipexole (at a peak daily dose of 1.0 mg pramipexole salt) or placebo. After treatment was established, emotional information processing was assessed on the neural level by measuring amygdala activity in response to positive and negative facial emotional expressions, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In addition, behavioural measures of emotional information processing were collected at baseline and on drug, using an established computerized task battery, tapping into different cognitive domains. As predicted, pramipexole-treated participants, compared to those receiving placebo, showed decreased neural activity in response to negative (fearful) vs. positive (happy) facial expressions in bilateral amygdala. Contrary to our predictions, however, pramipexole treatment had no significant antidepressant-like effect on behavioural measures of emotional processing. This study provides the first experimental evidence that subacute pramipexole treatment in healthy volunteers modifies neural responses to emotional information in a manner that resembles the effects of conventional antidepressant drugs.

Emotional Information Processing and Disrupted Parental Bonding: Cognitive Specificity and Avoidance

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick E. Ingram ◽  
Kelly Bailey ◽  
Greg Siegle
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Parental Bonding ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Cognitive Specificity ◽  
Emotional Information Processing

Although studies have assessed the association between affective dysfunction and parental bonding, little research has assessed the information processing characteristics of individuals with disrupted parental bonding. The current study investigated differences in attentional processing between individuals with relatively poor versus secure parental bonding, and also assessed this processing in conjunction with a mood priming procedure that has been used in previous vulnerability research. Using a Stroop procedure, results indicated that poorly bonded individuals were less distracted by depressive information than were individuals reporting a secure bonding history. Results also suggested that avoidance of anxious information in the poorly bonded group was uniquely associated with maternal overprotection. These results suggest that poorly bonded individuals may cope with their increased vulnerability by avoiding some types of affectively linked information, and that some of this avoidance may be linked to perceptions of a mother who is overly intrusive.

scholarly journals Emotional information-processing correlates of mental health in adolescence: A network analysis approach

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Parsons ◽  
Charlotte Booth ◽  
Annabel Songco ◽  
Elaine Fox
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Positive Mental Health ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Interpretation Biases ◽  
Model Complex ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Emotional Information Processing

The Combined Cognitive Bias Hypothesis proposes that emotional information processing biases associate with each other and may interact to conjointly influence mental health. Yet, little is known about the interrelationships amongst cognitive biases, particularly in adolescence. We used data from the CogBIAS longitudinal study (Booth et al. 2017), including 451 adolescents who completed measures of interpretation bias, memory bias, and a validated measure of general mental health in a typical population. We used a moderated network modelling approach to examine positive mental health related moderation of the cognitive bias network. Mental health was directly connected to positive and negative memory biases, and positive interpretation biases, but not negative interpretation biases. Further, we observed some mental health related moderation of the network structure. Network connectivity decreased with higher positive mental health scores. Network approaches allow us to model complex relationships amongst cognitive biases and develop novel hypotheses for future research.

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