Reduced specificity of autobiographical memory and depression: the role of executive control.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Dalgleish T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2225543 | biostudies-other | 2007 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:In this prospective longitudinal study, the authors examined the relationship between reduced specificity in autobiographical memory retrieval and the development of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and specific phobia after injury in an assault. Assault survivors (N = 203) completed the Autobiographical Memory Test (J. M. G. Williams & K. Broadbent, 1986) at 2 weeks after the trauma as well as structured clinical interviews at 2 weeks and 6 months. Participants with acute stress disorder or major depression at 2 weeks, but not those with phobia, retrieved fewer specific autobiographical memories than those without the respective disorder. Reduced memory specificity at 2 weeks also predicted subsequent PTSD and major depression at 6 months over and above what could be predicted from initial diagnoses and symptom severity. Moderator analyses showed that low memory specificity predicted later depression in participants with prior episodes of major depression but not in those without prior depression. Mediation analyses suggested that rumination partly mediated and perceived permanent change fully mediated the effects of low memory specificity on posttrauma psychopathology at follow-up.
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Project description:Associative learning plays an important role in the development of anxiety disorders, but a thorough understanding of the variables that impact such learning is still lacking. We investigated whether individual differences in autobiographical memory specificity are related to discrimination learning and generalization. In an associative learning task, participants learned the association between two pictures of female faces and a non-aversive outcome. Subsequently, six morphed pictures functioning as generalization stimuli (GSs) were introduced. In a sample of healthy participants (Study 1), we did not find evidence for differences in discrimination learning as a function of memory specificity. In a sample of anxiety disorder patients (Study 2), individuals who were characterized by low memory specificity showed deficient discrimination learning relative to high specific individuals. In contrast to previous findings, results revealed no effect of memory specificity on generalization. These results indicate that impaired discrimination learning, previously shown in patients suffering from an anxiety disorder, may be-in part-due to limited memory specificity. Together, these studies emphasize the importance of incorporating cognitive variables in associative learning theories and their implications for the development of anxiety disorders. In addition, re-analyses of the data (Study 3) showed that patients suffering from panic disorder showed higher outcome expectancies in the presence of the stimulus that was never followed by an outcome during discrimination training, relative to patients suffering from other anxiety disorders and healthy participants. Because we used a neutral, non-aversive outcome (i.e., drawing of a lightning bolt), these data suggest that learning abnormalities in panic disorder may not be restricted to fear learning, but rather reflect a more general associative learning deficit that also manifests in fear irrelevant contexts.
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Project description:The authors review research showing that when recalling autobiographical events, many emotionally disturbed patients summarize categories of events rather than retrieving a single episode. The mechanisms underlying such overgeneral memory are examined, with a focus on M. A. Conway and C. W. Pleydell-Pearce's (2000) hierarchical search model of personal event retrieval. An elaboration of this model is proposed to account for overgeneral memory, focusing on how memory search can be affected by (a) capture and rumination processes, when mnemonic information used in retrieval activates ruminative thinking; (b) functional avoidance, when episodic material threatens to cause affective disturbance; and (c) impairment in executive capacity and control that limits an individual's ability to remain focused on retrieval in the face of distraction.
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Project description:BackgroundThe ability to retrieve specific autobiographical memories decreases with cognitive aging. This decline is clinically relevant due to its association with impairments in problem solving, daily functioning, and depression. A therapist-delivered group training protocol, Memory Specificity Training (MeST), has been shown to enhance the retrieval of specific memories while ameliorating the impairments and negative outcomes associated with reduced specificity. The therapist-delivered nature of this intervention means it is relatively expensive to deliver and difficult for people with mobility impairments, such as older people, to receive.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to test if a novel, Web-based computerized version of a group training protocol called Memory Specificity Training, has the potential to increase autobiographical memory specificity and impact associated secondary psychological processes.MethodsA total of 21 participants (13 female; mean age 67.05, SD 6.55) who experienced a deficit in retrieving specific autobiographical memory were trained with c-MeST. We assessed memory specificity at preintervention and postintervention, as well as secondary processes such as depressive symptoms, rumination, and problem-solving skills.ResultsMemory specificity increased significantly after participants completed c-MeST (r=.57). Session-to-session scores indicated that autobiographical memory specificity improved most from the online baseline assessment to the first Web-based session. Symptoms or secondary processes such as problem-solving skills did not change significantly.ConclusionsA Web-based automated individual version of MeST is a feasible, low-cost intervention for reduced memory specificity in healthy older adults. Future studies should clarify the preventive impact of c-MeST in other at-risk sample populations with longer follow-up times.
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Project description:BACKGROUND:Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with deficits in recalling specific autobiographical memories (AMs). Extensive research has examined the functional anatomical correlates of AM in healthy humans, but no studies have examined the neurophysiological underpinnings of AM deficits in MDD. The goal of the present study was to examine the differences in the hemodynamic response between patients with MDD and controls while they engage in AM recall. METHOD:Participants (12 unmedicated MDD patients; 14 controls) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning while recalling AMs in response to positive, negative and neutral cue words. The hemodynamic response during memory recall versus performing subtraction problems was compared between MDD patients and controls. Additionally, a parametric linear analysis examined which regions correlated with increasing arousal ratings. RESULTS:Behavioral results showed that relative to controls, the patients with MDD had fewer specific (p=0.013), positive (p=0.030), highly arousing (p=0.036) and recent (p=0.020) AMs, and more categorical (p<0.001) AMs. The blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response in the parahippocampus and hippocampus was higher for memory recall versus subtraction in controls and lower in those with MDD. Activity in the anterior insula was lower for specific AM recall versus subtraction, with the magnitude of the decrement greater in MDD patients. Activity in the anterior cingulate cortex was positively correlated with arousal ratings in controls but not in patients with MDD. CONCLUSIONS:We replicated previous findings of fewer specific and more categorical AMs in patients with MDD versus controls. We found differential activity in medial temporal and prefrontal lobe structures involved in AM retrieval between MDD patients and controls as they engaged in AM recall. These neurophysiological deficits may underlie AM recall impairments seen in MDD.
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Project description:Considerable recent evidence indicates that angular gyrus dysfunction in humans does not result in amnesia, but does impair a number of aspects of episodic memory. Patients with parietal lobe lesions have been reported to exhibit a deficit when freely recalling autobiographical events from their pasts, but can remember details of the events when recall is cued by specific questions. In apparent contradiction, inhibitory brain stimulation targeting angular gyrus in healthy volunteers has been found to have no effect on free recall or cued recall of word pairs. The present study sought to resolve this inconsistency by testing free and cued recall of both autobiographical memories and word-pair memories in the same healthy male and female human participants following continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) of angular gyrus and a vertex control location. Angular gyrus cTBS resulted in a selective reduction in the free recall, but not cued recall, of autobiographical memories, whereas free and cued recall of word-pair memories were unaffected. Additionally, participants reported fewer autobiographical episodes as being experienced from a first-person perspective following angular gyrus cTBS. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that a function of angular gyrus within the network of brain regions responsible for episodic recollection is to integrate memory features within an egocentric framework into the kind of first-person perspective representation that enables the subjective experience of remembering events from our personal pasts.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In seeking to understand the role played by the angular gyrus region of parietal cortex in human memory, interpreting the often conflicting findings from neuroimaging and neuropsychology studies has been hampered by differences in anatomical specificity and localization between methods. In the present study, we address these limitations using continuous theta burst stimulation in healthy volunteers to disrupt function of angular gyrus and a vertex control region. With this method, we adjudicate between two competing theories of parietal lobe function, finding evidence that is inconsistent with an attentional role for angular gyrus in memory, supporting instead an account in terms of integrating memory features within an egocentric framework into a first-person perspective representation that enables the subjective experience of remembering.
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Project description:Overgeneral autobiographical memory (AM) manifests in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) tested during depressed (dMDD) or remitted phases (rMDD), and healthy individuals at high-risk (HR) for developing MDD. The current study aimed to elucidate differences in hemodynamic correlates of AM recall between rMDDs, HRs, and controls (HCs) to identify neural changes following previous depressive episodes without the confound of current depressed mood. HCs, HRs, and unmedicated rMDDs (n = 20/group) underwent fMRI while recalling AMs in response to emotionally valenced cue words. HRs and rMDDs recalled fewer specific and more categorical AMs relative to HCs. During specific AM recall, HRs had increased activity relative to rMDDs and HCs in left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. During positive specific AM recall, HRs and HCs had increased activity relative to rMDDs in bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) and left precuneus. During negative specific AM recall HRs and HCs had increased activity in left VLPFC and right DMPFC, while rMDDs had increased activity relative to HRs and HCs in right DLPFC and precuneus. Differential recruitment of medial prefrontal regions implicated in emotional control suggests experiencing a depressive episode may consequently reduce one's ability to regulate emotional responses during AM recall.
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Project description:ObjectivesCognitive and emotional disturbances have been associated with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Autobiographical memory is one of the specific cognitive processes affected during this disease. The current study had two main aims: (1) to compare the functioning of autobiographical memory specificity and its related variables (executive functioning, depression and perceived stress) in a group of persons with cancer and a control group; and (2) to analyze whether the experience of cancer evolved into a self-defining memory in the sample of participants diagnosed with this disease.MethodThe study sample comprised 62 participants, 31 in the group with a cancer diagnosis and 31 in the control group. Autobiographical memory specificity, executive functions, depression, stress and self-defining memory were evaluated in the current study.ResultsDepressive symptomatology and reduced executive functioning, but not perceived stress levels, are related and are predictors of autobiographical memory specificity. In addition, the identified characteristics of the self-defining memories were associated with the cancer experience as a threat to physical integrity and an awareness of the meaning of life.ConclusionThis emerging research line is especially important in view of its possible impacts on patients' well-being, due to the importance of psychological processes in cancer disease.
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Project description:A dominant view of prefrontal cortex (PFC) function is that it stores task-relevant information in working memory. To examine this and determine how it applies when multiple pieces of information must be stored, we trained two subjects to perform a multi-item color change detection task and recorded activity of neurons in PFC. Few neurons encoded the color of the items. Instead, the predominant encoding was spatial: a static signal reflecting the item's position and a dynamic signal reflecting the subject's covert attention. These findings challenge the notion that PFC stores task-relevant information. Instead, we suggest that the contribution of PFC is in controlling the allocation of resources to support working memory. In support of this, we found that increased power in the alpha and theta bands of PFC local field potentials, which are thought to reflect long-range communication with other brain areas, was correlated with more precise color representations.
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Project description:INTRODUCTION:Cognitive behavioural therapies (CBTs) are one of the most effective treatments for major depression. However, ~50% of individuals do not adequately respond to intervention and of those who do remit from a depressive episode, over 50% will experience later relapse. Identification of patient-level factors which moderate treatment response may ultimately help to identify cognitive barriers that could be targeted to improve treatment efficacy. This individual patient data meta-analysis explores one such potential moderator-the ability to retrieve specific, detailed memories of the autobiographical past-as cognitive-based therapeutic techniques draw heavily on the ability to use specific autobiographical information to challenge the dysfunctional beliefs which drive depression. METHODS AND ANALYSIS:We have formed a collaborative network which will contribute known datasets. This will be supplemented by datasets identified through literature searches in Medline, PsycInfo, Web of Science, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and WHO trials database between December 2018 and February 2019. Inclusion criteria are delivery of a cognitive or cognitive behavioural therapy for major depression, and measurement of autobiographical memory retrieval at preintervention. Primary outcomes are depressive symptoms and clinician-rated diagnostic status at postintervention, along with autobiographical memory specificity at postintervention. Secondary outcomes will consider each of these variables at follow-up. All analyses will be completed using random-effects models employing restricted maximum likelihood estimation. Risk of bias in included studies will be measured using the Revised Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:The findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Study results will contribute to better understanding of the role of autobiographical memory in patient response to CBTs, and may help to inform personalised medicine approaches to treatment of depression. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER:CRD42018109673.
| S-EPMC6575822 | biostudies-other