Emotional information processing in major depression remission and partial remission: faces come first

Although there is considerable knowledge of the cognitive and perceptual deficits associated with the acute phases of major depressive disorder (MDD), the processes involved in remission and relapse are still being evaluated. In the present study emotional information processing in remission was investigated. A Stroop paradigm was used to compare responses from a group of remitted or partially remitted MDD patients with a matched control group. The stimuli consisted of lexical and visual facial stimuli, with one word (positive/negative) superimposed on a face (happy/sad), presented in the same trial, and being congruent or incongruent. The task was to identify the emotional content of either the face (ignoring the word), or vice versa. The results showed that both patients and controls had the same interference patterns when the target was defined by the word, and that when the target was defined by the facial expression, reaction times were faster for both groups. However, patients showed a reduced positive bias, possibly indicating dissociation between patients and control groups in terms of attention to complex emotional information. Future studies testing the sensitivity of the Emotional Stroop test in the investigation of attention to complex emotional information is needed. Clinical implications are discussed.