Facial affect processing and depression susceptibility: cognitive biases and cognitive neuroscience

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Social Science

Background:

• Facial affect processing is crucial for social development and functioning.
• It is particularly relevant to understanding depression and its various theoretical models.
• Cognitive-interpersonal and social risk models emphasize the interplay of experience, cognition, and behavior in depression.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the literature on depressive facial affect processing.
• To examine its potential for interdisciplinary integration.
• To evaluate information processing and cognitive neuroscience studies in depressed and susceptible populations.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on facial affect processing in depression.
• Evaluation of studies using cognitive neuroscience and information processing paradigms.
• Assessment of facial affect interpretation, attention, and memory in depressed groups.

Main Results:

• Depressed and vulnerable groups show abnormal facial affect interpretation, attention, and memory.
• Findings vary with depression severity, anxiety, and viewing time.
• Biases correlate with neural activity patterns, depressive thoughts, and emotions, sometimes appearing without a depressed mood.

Conclusions:

• Facial affect processing abnormalities may stem from childhood neglect, impacting social functioning.
• Evidence for cognitive hypervigilance to social threat in depression is mixed.
• Further interdisciplinary research is needed to explore the promotion or causation of these abnormalities by attachment, negative thinking, and social dysfunction.