Biases in processing of mood-congruent facial expressions in depression

Cortical functional mechanisms in emotional cognitive tasks in first-episode, drug-naïve with major depressive disorder: A fNIRS study

BACKGROUND

Previous research has revealed that patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have negative biases in various aspects of information processing, and these biases are mainly manifested in recognizing facial expressions. However, the link between this emotional cognitive inhibition and neural activation mechanisms in cortical brain regions remains poorly understood. Therefore, this study employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to explore the potential impaired regions and neural mechanisms associated with facial emotion cognition in MDD patients.

METHODS

37 MDD patients and 34 healthy controls (HC) were recruited to participate in three sets of cognitive tasks for emotion recognition, and the cortical activation in the brain was synchronously recorded using multi-channel fNIRS.

RESULTS

During tasks requiring the motions identification of sad versus happy emotional states, MDD patients exhibit altered activation in both the left frontopolar cortex (FPC) and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Notably, the FPC demonstrates a higher level of internal coherence and broader correlation with other cortical areas. Moreover, MDD patients showed lower accuracy in distinguishing emotional cues associated with sadness versus those associated with neutral and happy emotions.

LIMITATIONS

The study had a relatively small sample size, and it specifically examined only three prevalent facial expressions.

CONCLUSION

Facial expression recognition in MDD patients is characterized by negative cognitive interpretation of expressions, which are associated with various cortical altered activations. Neuroimaging further suggests that the cognitive inhibition of emotion signal recognition in everyday interpersonal interactions in MDD patients may primarily be influenced by activation in the left FPC.

Personality Traits and Depression in Infertile Couples during the COVID-19

Background/Objectives: The study presented in this paper seeks to examine how personality traits and depressive symptoms, influenced by the fear of COVID-19, interact in infertile couples, who are on the verge of commencing treatments with assisted reproductive technology (ART). The purpose of this observational study was to explore the relationship between personality traits in infertile couples and the occurrence of depressive symptoms, taking into account the mediating effect of COVID-19 fear. Methods: The study sample consisted of 108 women and 71 men (N = 179), all of whom had received an infertility diagnosis and expressed a desire to begin ART treatment at a Sicilian ART center; they were subsequently recruited. The Personality Inventory (PI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Fear of COVID (FCV-19S) were used for data collection. Results: The FCV-19S demonstrates a significant positive correlation with both neuroticism (r = 0.25, p = 0.001) and agreeableness (r = 0.19, p = 0.012). In addition, there is a significant correlation between FCV-19S (r = 0.67, p < 0.001) and depression symptoms. The mediation analysis reveals that neuroticism is a predictor of fear of COVID-19 (β = 1.77, p = 0.001) and depression (β = 0.22, p = 0.002). Additionally, the fear of COVID-19 significantly influences (β = 0.12, p < 0.001) depression. Conclusions: This study found that neuroticism and agreeableness are positively linked to the fear of COVID-19, and women displayed notable mild mood disorders. Neuroticism predicted both depression and fear of COVID-19, while fear of COVID-19 predicted depressive symptoms. However, the total efficacy of the mediation model was not significant, thereby suggesting that the variables do not fully explain this model.

Neurophysiological Pathways of Unconscious Emotion Processing in Depression: Insights From a Simultaneous Electroencephalography-Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Measurement

BACKGROUND

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by strong emotional dysregulation. Mechanisms driving the negative affect in depression may be fast processes existing on an unconscious level.

METHODS

A priming task was conducted using simultaneous electroencephalography-functional magnetic resonance imaging measurement involving presentation of facial expressions (happy, sad, and neutral) to examine the neurophysiological pathway of biased unconscious emotion processing in MDD. Priming prior to a target emotion created unconscious (16.7-ms primer) and conscious (150-ms primer) trials. A large sample (N = 126) was recruited, containing healthy control participants (n = 66; 37 women) and participants with MDD (n = 60; 31 women).

RESULTS

The healthy control group showed a shorter reaction time in happy but not in sad or neutral trials compared with the MDD group. N170 amplitudes were lower in trials with unconscious than conscious primer presentation. N170 amplitudes correlated with cortical (right fusiform gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus, left supplementary motor area, right middle frontal gyrus) and subcortical brain regions (right amygdala). The strength of N170 and brain activity correlation increased when the stimulus was consciously presented. Presented emotions did not affect the correlation of N170 values and brain activity.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings show that MDD may exhibit biased emotion regulation abilities at a behavioral and neurophysiological level. Face-sensitive event-related potentials demonstrate a correlation with heightened brain activity in regions associated with both face recognition (fusiform gyrus) and emotion processing (amygdala). These findings are evident in both MDD and healthy control groups, with lower effect sizes in the MDD group indicating reduced emotion recognition and processing abilities.

Relationship between low mood and micro-expression processing: evidence of negative bias in interpreting fleeting facial expressions

Depression affects the recognition of emotion in facial expressions by reducing the detection accuracy and adding a bias towards negativity. However, no study has examined associations between depression and the recognition of microfacial expressions (fleeting facial cues of emotions in people's faces). Thus, we investigated associations between low mood and micro-expression processing using video stimuli of micro-expressions. We examined whether (i) individuals with low mood had trouble recognizing emotions, (ii) were more likely to perceive happy facial expressions as neutral and neutral facial expressions as sad, and (iii) recognized sad emotional expressions better than control subjects (n = 349). We found that participants with low mood showed poorer performance when judging emotions in faces (p = 0.03). Furthermore, there was a specific deficit among them in recognizing happiness. Lastly, participants with low moods were more likely to perceive neutral faces as sad (p = 0.042). However, no evidence was found that individuals with low moods confused happy faces as neutral or were better than the control group at recognizing sad faces. Our results show that mood affects the perception of emotions in facial expressions, which has the potential to negatively affect interpersonal interactions and ultimately quality of life.

Behavioral and neuroanatomical correlates of facial emotion processing in post-stroke depression

BACKGROUND

Emotion processing deficits are known to accompany depressive symptoms and are often seen in stroke patients. Little is known about the influence of post-stroke depressive (PSD) symptoms and specific brain lesions on altered emotion processing abilities and how these phenomena develop over time. This potential relationship may impact post-stroke rehabilitation of neurological and psychosocial function. To address this scientific gap, we investigated the relationship between PSD symptoms and emotion processing abilities in a longitudinal study design from the first days post-stroke into the early chronic phase.

METHODS

Twenty-six ischemic stroke patients performed an emotion processing task on videos with emotional faces ('happy,' 'sad,' 'anger,' 'fear,' and 'neutral') at different intensity levels (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%). Recognition accuracies and response times were measured, as well as scores of depressive symptoms (Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale). Twenty-eight healthy participants matched in age and sex were included as a control group. Whole-brain support-vector regression lesion-symptom mapping (SVR-LSM) analyses were performed to investigate whether specific lesion locations were associated with the recognition accuracy of specific emotion categories.

RESULTS

Stroke patients performed worse in overall recognition accuracy compared to controls, specifically in the recognition of happy, sad, and fearful faces. Notably, more depressed stroke patients showed an increased processing towards specific negative emotions, as they responded significantly faster to angry faces and recognized sad faces of low intensities significantly more accurately. These effects obtained for the first days after stroke partly persisted to follow-up assessment several months later. SVR-LSM analyses revealed that inferior and middle frontal regions (IFG/MFG) and insula and putamen were associated with emotion-recognition deficits in stroke. Specifically, recognizing happy facial expressions was influenced by lesions affecting the anterior insula, putamen, IFG, MFG, orbitofrontal cortex, and rolandic operculum. Lesions in the posterior insula, rolandic operculum, and MFG were also related to reduced recognition accuracy of fearful facial expressions, whereas recognition deficits of sad faces were associated with frontal pole, IFG, and MFG damage.

CONCLUSION

PSD symptoms facilitate processing negative emotional stimuli, specifically angry and sad facial expressions. The recognition accuracy of different emotional categories was linked to brain lesions in emotion-related processing circuits, including insula, basal ganglia, IFG, and MFG. In summary, our study provides support for psychosocial and neural factors underlying emotional processing after stroke, contributing to the pathophysiology of PSD.

Affective norms for 501 Chinese words from three emotional dimensions rated by depressive disorder patients

Introduction

Emotional words are often used as stimulus material to explore the cognitive and emotional characteristics of individuals with depressive disorder, while normal individuals mostly rate the scores of affective words. Given that individuals with depressive disorder exhibit a negative cognitive bias, it is possible that their depressive state could influence the ratings of affective words. To enhance the validity of the stimulus material, we specifically recruited patients with depression to provide these ratings.

Methods

This study provided subjective ratings for 501 Chinese affective norms, incorporating 167 negative words selected from depressive disorder patients' Sino Weibo blogs, and 167 neutral words and 167 positive words selected from the Chinese Affective Word System. The norms are based on the assessments made by 91 patients with depressive disorder and 92 normal individuals, by using the paper-and-pencil quiz on a 9-point scale.

Results

Regardless of the group, the results show high reliability and validity. We identified group differences in three dimensions: valence, arousal, and self-relevance: the depression group rated negative words higher, but positive and neutral words lower than the normal control group.

Conclusion

The emotional perception affected the individual's perception of words, to some extent, this database expanded the ratings and provided a reference for exploring norms for individuals with different emotional states.

EEG biomarkers of behavioral inhibition in patients with depression who committed violent offenses: a Go/NoGo ERP study

Understanding the neurobiological correlates of behavioral inhibition in patients with depression who committed violent offenses could contribute to the prediction and prevention of violence. The present study recruited 29 depressed patients with violent offenses (VD group), 27 depressed patients without violent behavior (NVD group), and 28 healthy controls (HC group) to complete a visual Go/NoGo task, during which their responses and electroencephalography were simultaneously recorded using an event-related potentiometer. The results showed that the VD group made more commission errors and responded more slowly relative to the NVD and HC groups. The P3 amplitude of the VD group was reduced in the frontal and central brain regions compared to the HC group and increased in the parietal regions compared to the NVD group. In comparison to Go stimuli, NoGo stimuli induced longer P3 latencies in frontal regions in both the VD and NVD groups; however, this difference was not statistically significant in the HC group. These results provide electrophysical evidence of behavioral inhibition deficits in patients with depression, especially in those with violent behaviors. The reduced P3 amplitude in the frontal-central regions, increased P3 amplitude in the parietal regions, and increased NoGo P3 latency may be potential electrophysiological features that can predict violent behavior in patients with depression.

Major depressive disorder associated alterations in the effective connectivity of the face processing network: a systematic review

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is marked by altered processing of emotional stimuli, including facial expressions. Recent neuroimaging research has attempted to investigate how these stimuli alter the directional interactions between brain regions in those with MDD; however, methodological heterogeneity has made identifying consistent effects difficult. To address this, we systematically examined studies investigating MDD-associated differences present in effective connectivity during the processing of emotional facial expressions. We searched five databases: PsycINFO, EMBASE, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, using a preregistered protocol (registration number: CRD42021271586). Of the 510 unique studies screened, 17 met our inclusion criteria. These studies identified that compared with healthy controls, participants with MDD demonstrated (1) reduced connectivity from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to the amygdala during the processing of negatively valenced expressions, and (2) increased inhibitory connectivity from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex to amygdala during the processing of happy facial expressions. Most studies investigating the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex noted differences in their connectivity; however, the precise nature of these differences was inconsistent between studies. As such, commonalities observed across neuroimaging modalities warrant careful investigation to determine the specificity of these effects to particular subregions and emotional expressions. Future research examining longitudinal connectivity changes associated with treatment response may provide important insights into mechanisms underpinning therapeutic interventions, thus enabling more targeted treatment strategies.

Maternal aggressive behavior in interactions with adolescent offspring: Proximal social-cognitive predictors in depressed and nondepressed mothers

Maternal depressive symptoms are associated with elevations in harsh parenting behavior, including criticism, negative affect, and hostile or coercive behavior, and these behaviors contribute to associations between maternal depressive symptomatology and child functioning. We used multilevel survival analysis to examine social-cognitive processes as proximal predictors of the onset and offset of maternal aggressive behavior during interactions with their adolescent children. Low-income women (N = 180) were selected for either: (a) elevated depressive symptoms and a history of treatment for depression (depressed group) or (b) not more than mild levels of current depressive symptomatology, no history of depression treatment, and no current mental health treatment (nondepressed group). These women and their adolescent children (ages 11-14, M = 12.93; 96 male sex, as assigned at birth) participated in a dyadic problem-solving interaction and mothers completed a video-mediated recall procedure, in which they watched a segment of the interaction, labeled their adolescents' affect, and made attributions for their behavior. Mothers in the depressed group were more likely to initiate aggressive behavior and, once initiated, were less likely to transition out of it. Mothers in both groups were less likely to transition out of aggressive behavior when they made negative attributions for their adolescents' behavior. Findings point to promising cognitive and behavioral targets for intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Music and neuro-cognitive deficits in depression

Background

Cognitive deficits are one of the core features of major depressive disorder (MDD) that play crucial role in functional recovery. Studies have explored cognitive deficits in MDD, however, given inconsistent results, especially in mild-moderate MDD. Recently, studies have explored music as cognitive ability in various clinical conditions. In MDD, large focus has been on evaluating emotion deficits and just a handful on music cognition. With growing evidence on use of music based intervention to target cognitive deficits, it is imperative to explore nature of music cognitive ability in MDD.

Aim

To examine musical and neuro-cognitive deficits in patients with mild-moderate MDD.

Methods

Patients diagnosed with mild or moderate MDD (n = 19) and matched healthy controls (HC) (n = 18) were evaluated on selected tests from NIMHANS Neuropsychological test battery and Montreal battery for evaluation of amusia (MBEA).

Results

MDD group performed significantly lower than HC on working memory (p = 0.007), verbal learning (p = 0.02) and retention (p = 0.03). Three indices were computed for a comprehensive evaluation. Groups did not differ significantly in any of the indices- focused attention, executive function, learning and memory as well as on music cognition. Focused attention and memory index predicted music cognition in HC and the combined group (MDD + HC) (p < 0.01). Attention alone contributed to 62.1% of variance in music cognition. Similarly, music cognition significantly predicted focused attention (p < 0.01).

Conclusion

Individuals with mild-moderate MDD show significant deficits in working memory, verbal learning and memory, however, not in music cognition. There exists a significant relationship between music cognition and attention, which could be implicated in use of music interventions to ameliorate cognitive deficits. Limitations of study include small sample size and heterogeneity. Future studies on larger cohort examining musical emotion perception and neurocognition is imperative to have deeper understanding of this debilitating condition.

Impairments of Social Interaction in Depressive Disorder

OBJECTIVE

Despite the numerous findings on the altered emotion recognition and dysfunctional social interaction behavior of depressive patients, a lot of the relationships are not clearly clarified.

METHODS

In this pilot study, 20 depressive patients (mean±SD, 38.4±14.2) and 20 healthy subjects (mean±SD, 38.9±15.3) (each in dyads) were videographed. We then analyzed their social interaction behavior and emotion processing in terms of emotion recognition, their own emotional experience, and the expression of emotions under the conditions of a semi-structured experimental paradigm.

RESULTS

Patients showed more significant impairment regarding the dimensions of social interaction behavior (i.e., attention, interest, and activity) and their interaction behavior was characterized by neutral affectivity, silence, and avoidance of direct eye contact. This interactive behavioral style was statistically related to depressive psychopathology. There were no differences concerning emotion recognition.

CONCLUSION

Impairments of non-verbal and verbal social interaction behavior of depressive patients seem to be less associated with disturbances of basic skills of emotion recognition.

Lack of an Attention Bias Away From Relatively Negative Faces in Dysphoria Is Not Related to Biased Emotion Identification

Eye-tracking-based attention research has consistently shown a lack of a normative attentional bias away from dysphoric face stimuli in depression, characterizing the attention system of non-depressed individuals. However, this more equal attention allocation pattern could also be related to biased emotion identification, namely, an inclination of depressed individuals to attribute negative emotions to non-negative stimuli when processing mood-congruent stimuli. Here, we examined emotion identification as a possible mechanism associated with attention allocation when processing emotional faces in depression. Attention allocation and emotion identification of participants with high (HD; n = 30) and low (LD; n = 30) levels of depression symptoms were assessed using two corresponding tasks previously shown to yield significant findings in depression, using the same face stimuli (sad, happy, and neutral faces) across both tasks. We examined group differences on each task and possible between-task associations. Results showed that while LD participants dwelled longer on relatively positive faces compared with relatively negative faces on the attention allocation task, HD participants showed no such bias, dwelling equally on both. Trait anxiety did not affect these results. No group differences were noted for emotion identification, and no between-task associations emerged. Present results suggest that depression is characterized by a lack of a general attention bias toward relatively positive faces over relatively negative faces, which is not related to a corresponding bias in emotion identification.

The neural correlation of emotion recognition ability and depressive symptoms-evidence from the HCP database

INTRODUCTION

Negative bias of emotional face is the core feature of depression, but its underlying neurobiological mechanism is still unclear. The neuroimaging findings of negative emotional recognition and depressive symptoms are inconsistent.

METHODS

The neural association between depressive symptoms and negative emotional bias were analyzed by measuring the associations between resting state functional connectivity (FC), brain structures, negative emotional bias, and depressive problems. Then, we performed a mediation analysis to assess the potential overlapping neuroimaging mechanisms.

RESULTS

We found a negative correlation between depressive symptoms and emotional recognition. Secondly, the structure and function of the inferior and lateral orbitofrontal gyrus are related to depressive symptoms and emotional recognition. Thirdly, the thickness of the inferior orbitofrontal cortex and the FC between the inferior orbitofrontal gyrus and fusiform gyrus, precuneate and cingulate gyrus mediated and even predicted the interaction between emotion recognition and depressive symptoms. Finally, in response to a negative stimulus, the activation of the frontal pole and precuneus lobe associated with the inferior orbitofrontal gyrus was higher in participants with depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSION

The core brain regions centered on the inferior orbitofrontal cortex such as middle temporal gyrus, precuneus lobe, frontal pole, insula and cingulate gyrus are the potential neuroimaging basis for the interaction between depressive symptoms and emotional recognition.

Altered effective connectivity of the extended face processing system in depression and its association with treatment response: findings from the YoDA-C randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Depression is commonly associated with fronto-amygdala dysfunction during the processing of emotional face expressions. Interactions between these regions are hypothesized to contribute to negative emotional processing biases and as such have been highlighted as potential biomarkers of treatment response. This study aimed to investigate depression associated alterations to directional connectivity and assess the utility of these parameters as predictors of treatment response.

METHODS

Ninety-two unmedicated adolescents and young adults (mean age 20.1; 56.5% female) with moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder and 88 healthy controls (mean age 19.8; 61.4% female) completed an implicit emotional face processing fMRI task. Patients were randomized to receive cognitive behavioral therapy for 12 weeks, plus either fluoxetine or placebo. Using dynamic causal modelling, we examined functional relationships between six brain regions implicated in emotional face processing, comparing both patients and controls and treatment responders and non-responders.

RESULTS

Depressed patients demonstrated reduced inhibition from the dlPFC to vmPFC and reduced excitation from the dlPFC to amygdala during sad expression processing. During fearful expression processing patients showed reduced inhibition from the vmPFC to amygdala and reduced excitation from the amygdala to dlPFC. Response was associated with connectivity from the amygdala to dlPFC during sad expression processing and amygdala to vmPFC connectivity during fearful expression processing.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study clarifies the nature of face processing network alterations in adolescents and young adults with depression, highlighting key interactions between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. Moreover, these findings highlight the potential utility of these interactions in predicting treatment response.

Depression and episodic memory across the adult lifespan: A meta-analytic review

Episodic memory deficits have increasingly been recognized as a cognitive feature of depression. To quantify these deficits and determine how they are moderated by various tasks (e.g., stimulus valence) and participant (e.g., age, depression diagnosis) variables, we conducted a three-level meta-analysis on 995 effect sizes derived from 205 studies with 236 unique comparisons between depressive and control groups on episodic memory measures. Overall, depression was associated with small to moderate deficits in episodic memory, Hedges' g = -0.36, 95% CI [-0.41 to -0.31]. Effects were larger in older age, in diagnosed compared to subthreshold depression, and in those taking medication for depression; effects did not differ between those with current and remitted symptoms. Stimulus valence moderated the effects, such that depression-related deficits were particularly pronounced for positive and neutral stimuli, but not for negative stimuli. Educational attainment served as a sort of protective factor, in that at higher levels of education, depressed group performance was more similar to that of controls. These findings confirm the episodic memory deficits in depression but highlight the important differences in the size of these deficits across a number of task- and participant-related variables. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Same salience, different consequences: Disturbed inter-network connectivity during a social oddball paradigm in major depressive disorder

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No significant difference in BOLD responses in the SN between controls and patients.

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Anhedonic symptomatology relates to diminished BOLD signals in the left amygdala.

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Enhanced functional connectivity from the SN to the DMN in depression.

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Reduced functional connectivity from the SN to the VAN in depression.

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Altered processing in depression is coded in disturbed inter-network connectivity.

Background

So far findings on emotional face processing among depressed individuals reveal an inconsistent image, with only some studies supporting a mood-congruent bias in salience processing. Thereby, many results are based on the processing of sad emotions and mostly focused on resting-state connectivity analysis. The present study aimed to target this misbalance by implementing a social oddball paradigm, with a special focus on the amygdala, the ACC, the insula and subdivisions of insula and ACC.

Methods

Twenty-seven depressed patients and twenty-seven non-depressed controls took part in a fMRI event-related social oddball paradigm based on smiling facial expressions as target stimuli embedded in a stream of neutral facial expressions. FMRI activation and functional connectivity analysis were calculated for the pre-defined ROIs of the salience network (SN), with a special focus on twelve insular subdivisions and six ACC subdivisions.

Results

For both groups the social oddball paradigm triggered similar BOLD responses within the pre-defined ROIs, while the quality of functional connectivity showed pronounced alterations from the salience network to the ventral attention- and default mode network (DMN).

Conclusion

On a first level of target detection, smiling faces are equally processed and trigger similar bold responses in structures of the salience network. On a second level of inter-network communication the brain of depressed participants tends to be pre-formed for self-referential processing and rumination instead of fast goal directed behavior and socio-emotional cognitive processing.

The association between implicit and explicit affective inhibitory control, rumination and depressive symptoms

Inhibitory control underlies one's ability to maintain goal-directed behavior by inhibiting prepotent responses or ignoring irrelevant information. Recent models suggest that impaired inhibition of negative information may contribute to depressive symptoms, and that this association is mediated by rumination. However, the exact nature of this association, particularly in non-clinical samples, is unclear. The current study assessed the relationship between inhibitory control over emotional vs. non-emotional information, rumination and depressive symptoms. A non-clinical sample of 119 participants (mean age: 36.44 ± 11.74) with various levels of depressive symptoms completed three variations of a Go/No-Go task online; two of the task variations required either explicit or implicit processing of emotional expressions, and a third variation contained no emotional expressions (i.e., neutral condition). We found reductions in inhibitory control for participants reporting elevated symptoms of depression on all three task variations, relative to less depressed participants. However, for the task variation that required implicit emotion processing, depressive symptoms were associated with inhibitory deficits for sad and neutral, but not for happy expressions. An exploratory analysis showed that the relationship between inhibition and depressive symptoms occurs in part through trait rumination for all three tasks, regardless of emotional content. Collectively, these results indicate that elevated depressive symptoms are associated with both a general inhibitory control deficit, as well as affective interference from negative emotions, with implications for the assessment and treatment of mood disorders.

Testing a Novel Web-Based Neurocognitive Battery in the General Community: Validation and Usability Study

BACKGROUND

In recent years, there has been increased interest in the development of remote psychological assessments. These platforms increase accessibility and allow clinicians to monitor important health metrics, thereby informing patient-centered treatment.

OBJECTIVE

In this study, we report the properties and usability of a new web-based neurocognitive assessment battery and present a normative data set for future use.

METHODS

A total of 781 participants completed a portion of 8 tasks that captured performance in auditory processing, visual-spatial working memory, visual-spatial learning, cognitive flexibility, and emotional processing. A subset of individuals (n=195) completed a 5-question survey measuring the acceptability of the tasks.

RESULTS

Between 252 and 426 participants completed each task. Younger individuals outperformed their older counterparts in 6 of the 8 tasks. Therefore, central tendency data metrics were presented using 7 different age bins. The broad majority of participants found the tasks interesting and enjoyable and endorsed some interest in playing them at home. Only 1 of 195 individuals endorsed not at all for the statement, "I understood the instructions." Older individuals were less likely to understand the instructions; however, 72% (49/68) of individuals over the age of 60 years still felt that they mostly or very much understood the instructions.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the tasks were found to be widely acceptable to the participants. The use of web-based neurocognitive tasks such as these may increase the ability to deploy precise data-informed interventions to a wider population.