The Role of Interference and Inhibition Processes in Dysphoric Early Adolescents

Interaction between working memory load and the ability to resist interference from negative distractors in dysphoria

Although the relationship between emotional working memory (WM) and depressive symptoms has been well established in clinical samples, research in the subclinical population has produced mixed results. The present study tested the effect of WM load on control of interference from emotional (positive, negative, neutral) distractors in dysphoria. Dysphoric (n = 32) and non-dysphoric (n = 35) university students were administered the emotional 2-back (lower WM load) and 3-back (higher WM load) tasks. Results showed that resisting negative distractors was more difficult for the dysphoric group than the non-dysphoric group, but only in the 3-back task. The results demonstrate that dysphoria is associated with greater interference from negative distractors under high WM load. We conclude that both WM load and emotional valence have an effect on WM performance in dysphoria, and the poor ability to resist interference from negative distractors in WM might be a key cognitive vulnerability factor for depression.

Influence of Attention Control on Implicit and Explicit Emotion Processing of Face and Body: Evidence From Flanker and Same-or-Different Paradigms

Many existing findings indicate that processing of emotional information is pre-attentive, largely immune from attentional control. Nevertheless, inconsistent evidence on the interference of emotional cues on cognitive processing suggests that this influence may be a highly conditional phenomenon. The aim of the present study was twofold: (1) to examine the modulation of attention control on emotion processing using facial expressions (2) explore the very same effect for emotional body expressions. In Experiment 1, participants performed a Flanker task in which they had to indicate either the emotion (happy/fearful) or the gender of the target stimulus while ignoring the distracting stimuli at the side. We found evidence for intrusion of the emotional dimension of a stimulus in both the emotion and gender discrimination performance, thus when either task-relevant or task-irrelevant. To further explore the influence of attention control mechanisms, in Experiment 2 participants performed a same-or-different judgment task in which they were asked to pay attention to both the central and lateral stimuli and indicated whether the central stimulus matched the lateral for emotion or gender. Results showed that emotional features exerted an influence at an implicit level (i.e., during gender judgments) for bodies only. Gender features did not affect emotional processing in either experiments. To rule out the possibility that this effect was driven by postural rather than emotional features of fearful vs. happy stimuli, a control experiment was conducted. In Experiment 3, bodies with an opening/up-ward or closing/down-ward posture but with no emotional valence were presented. Results revealed that the body posture did not influence gender discrimination. Findings suggest that the emotional valence of a face or body stimulus can overpass attention filtering mechanisms, independently from the level of attentional modulation (Experiment 1). However, broadening the focus of attention to include the lateral stimuli led emotional information to intrude on the main task, exerting an implicit, bottom–up influence on gender processing, only when conveyed by bodies (Experiment 2). Results point to different mechanisms for the implicit processing of face and body emotional expressions, with the latter likely having role on action preparation processes.

Evidence for the triadic model of adolescent brain development: Cognitive load and task-relevance of emotion differentially affect adolescents and adults

In adults, cognitive control is supported by several brain regions including the limbic system and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) when processing emotional information. However, in adolescents, some theories hypothesize a neurobiological imbalance proposing heightened sensitivity to affective material in the amygdala and striatum within a cognitive control context. Yet, direct neurobiological evidence is scarce. Twenty-four adolescents (12-16) and 28 adults (25-35) completed an emotional n-back working memory task in response to happy, angry, and neutral faces during fMRI. Importantly, participants either paid attention to the emotion (task-relevant condition) or judged the gender (task-irrelevant condition). Behaviorally, for both groups, when happy faces were task-relevant, performance improved relative to when they were task-irrelevant, while performance decrements were seen for angry faces. In the dlPFC, angry faces elicited more activation in adults during low relative to high cognitive load (2-back vs. 0-back). By contrast, happy faces elicited more activation in the amygdala in adolescents when they were task-relevant. Happy faces also generally increased nucleus accumbens activity (regardless of relevance) in adolescents relative to adults. Together, the findings are consistent with neurobiological models of adolescent brain development and identify neurodevelopmental differences in cognitive control emotion interactions.

Joint Contributions of Negative Emotionality, Positive Emotionality, and Effortful Control on Depressive Symptoms in Youth

From a clinical developmental perspective, temperament has been shown to confer vulnerability to depression among youth. High negative emotionality (NE), low positive emotionality (PE), and low effortful control (EC) have repeatedly been independently associated with youth depressive symptoms. However, far less research has examined the joint contributions of NE, PE, and EC on such symptoms. The present study builds upon previous research by examining how NE, PE, and EC jointly predict change in depressive symptoms over time among 211 youngsters (7-14 years, M = 10.7, SD = 1.81) who participated in an 8-month prospective study. Self-reported temperament and symptoms were assessed at baseline; self-reported symptoms were measured again at follow-up. Results suggest that all 3 temperamental traits need to be considered jointly in predicting change in depressive symptoms. Furthermore, results provide further support for the "best two out of three" principle. Surprisingly, results reveal that high EC might be maladaptive in the context of high emotional reactivity. Last, results show that the combination of high NE and low EC could be a possible pathway to the development of symptoms. The current study clarified how NE, PE, and EC may jointly confer risk-or protection for developing depressive symptoms during adolescence. The results highlight the need of taking into account all three temperamental traits in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of the risk for developing depressive symptoms at an early stage, as well as to provide customized care targeting temperamental vulnerability in depressed youth.