Brooding rumination and attentional biases in currently non-depressed individuals: an eye-tracking study

Both rumination and attentional biases have been proposed as key components of the RDoC Negative Valence Systems construct of Loss. Although theorists have proposed that rumination, particularly brooding rumination, should be associated with increased sustained attention to depression-relevant information, it is not clear whether this link would be observed in a non-depressed sample or whether it is specific to brooding versus reflective rumination. To address these questions, the current study examined the link between brooding rumination and attentional biases in a sample of non-depressed individuals (n?=?105). Attentional biases were assessed using eye tracking during a passive viewing task in which participants were presented with 2?×?2 arrays of angry, happy, sad, and neutral faces. In line with predictions, higher levels of brooding rumination were associated with greater sustained attention to sad faces and less sustained attention to happy faces. These results remained significant after controlling for participants’ prior history of major depression and current nonclinical level of depressive symptoms, suggesting that the link between brooding rumination and attentional biases is at least partially independent of current or past depression.     

Gaze-fixation and pupil dilation in the processing of emotional faces: The role of rumination

Sustained attentional processing of negative information plays a significant role in the development and maintenance of depression. The present study examines the relationships between rumination, a relevant factor in information processing in depression, and the attentional mechanisms activated in individuals with different levels of depression severity when attending to emotional information (i.e., sad, angry and happy faces). Behavioural and physiological indicators of sustained processing were assessed in 126 participants (39 dysphoric and 87 non-dysphoric) using eye-tracking technology. Pupil dilation and total time attending to negative faces were correlated with a global ruminative style in the total sample once depression severity was controlled. Furthermore, in dysphoric participants the brooding component of rumination was specifically associated with the total time attending to sad faces. Finally, bootstrapping analyses showed that the relationships between global rumination and pupil diameter to emotional faces were accounted by total time attending to emotional faces, specifically for participants reporting lower levels of depression severity. The results support the idea that sustained processing of negative information is associated with a higher ruminative style and indicate differential associations between these factors at different levels of depressive symptomatology.     

Getting stuck in depression: The roles of rumination and emotional inertia

Like many other mental disorders, depression is characterised by psychological inflexibility. Two instances of such inflexibility are rumination: repetitive cognitions focusing on the causes and consequences of depressive symptoms; and emotional inertia: the tendency for affective states to be resistant to change. In two studies, we tested the predictions that: (1) rumination and emotional inertia are related; and (2) both independently contribute to depressive symptoms. We examined emotional inertia of subjective affective experiences in daily life among a sample of non-clinical undergraduates (Study 1), and of affective behaviours during a family interaction task in a sample of clinically depressed and non-depressed adolescents (Study 2), and related it to self-reported rumination and depression severity. In both studies, rumination (particularly the brooding facet) and emotional inertia (particularly of sad/dysphoric affect) were positively associated, and both independently predicted depression severity. These findings demonstrate the importance of studying both cognitive and affective inflexibility in depression.     

Rumination and Impaired Prospective Memory

Prospective memory (PM), remembering to remember, is crucial to everyday functioning. Understanding factors associated with PM impairments is thus important. One likely factor is rumination: a common cognitive process comprising repetitive self-focused thoughts. We investigated whether rumination is associated with impaired PM, and whether any associated impairment is exacerbated with negative stimuli. A sentence-rating task with sentences varying in valence was used with embedded PM cues in a non-clinical sample (N = 60). State rumination, two trait rumination subtypes (reflective pondering and brooding), and mood were measured in relation to PM cue detection and response times. Results showed that state rumination was associated with impaired PM cue detection and slower response times to PM cues embedded in negative sentences (not positive or neutral). Trait brooding (not reflective pondering) was associated with slower PM response times. These findings indicate that state rumination and trait brooding are associated with dissociable PM impairments.     

Role of anxiety and brooding in specificity of autobiographical recall

Overgeneral schemas and lack of autobiographical memory (AM) specificity about our past experiences can predict mood disturbance. Rumination, functional avoidance and executive processes are the main explanatory variables of such overgenerality. However, in non‐clinical samples, rumination predicts overgenerality most consistently after the induction of dysphoric mood. Anxiety also activates rumination. Furthermore, anxiety predicts memory performance and has effects on mood which are independent of the effects of rumination. So, what might be the role of anxiety in autobiographical memory performance? A sample of 210 voluntary participants reported measures of autobiographical memory, anxiety, rumination (brooding and reflection), functional avoidance and executive functions (semantic and phonetic verbal fluency task). Autobiographical performance (specificity) was negatively associated with brooding and age and positively with phonetic verbal fluency but not with functional avoidance and anxiety. However, anxiety and brooding were positively correlated even after controlling for depression scores. Moreover, using structural equation modeling, anxiety showed a significant indirect effect on autobiographical specificity through brooding rumination. These results suggest a possible association of anxiety with autobiographical recall through brooding rumination.     

Specificity of parental bonding and rumination in depressive and anxious emotional distress

We examined how different dimensions of rumination may mediate the impact of parental bonding (lack of care and overprotectiveness) on negative emotional symptomatology (anxiety and depression). Survey data from participants were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that brooding rumination fully mediated the relationship between maternal care and depressive and anxious symptomatology. These findings suggest that to the extent that maternal caregivers are low in warmth and support, offspring are more likely to develop a brooding style of ruminative thinking associated with heightened emotional distress. This research supports the growing body of evidence suggesting that cognitive variables form a pathway between troublesome parent/child interactions and psychopathology.     

Depressive Rumination and Co-Morbidity: Evidence for Brooding as a Transdiagnostic Process

A sample of 116 patients with unipolar mood disorders referred to a specialist research clinic were assessed to investigate (a) whether rumination is a transdiagnostic process that is related to co-morbid Axis I and II symptoms and diagnosis in depressed patients; (b) whether common findings in the depressive rumination literature could be replicated in a recurrent depressed sample. Consistent with the transdiagnostic hypothesis, rumination was positively associated with both depression and anxiety, brooding was related to co-morbid obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, and rumination was associated with traits associated with borderline personality disorder, most notably self-report of unstable relationships and inconsistent sense of self. As predicted, rumination was equivalent in currently depressed and formerly depressed patients, suggesting that rumination is not simply dependent on mood state or clinical status. As predicted, the brooding subtype most strongly correlated with depressed and anxious symptoms, consistent with previous observations that brooding is the more maladaptive form of rumination. As predicted, rumination was associated with reports of sexual abuse. Inconsistent with previous findings, there was no gender difference in rumination.     

Time-course of attention to negative stimuli: Negative affectivity, anxiety, or dysphoria?

Although biased attention to emotional stimuli is considered a vulnerability factor for anxiety and dysphoria, research has infrequently related such attentional biases to dimensional models of vulnerability for anxiety and mood disorders. In two studies (Study 1, n = 64; Study 2, n = 168), we evaluate the differential associations of general negative affectivity, anxiety, and dysphoria with biases in selective attention among nonclinical participants selected to vary in both anxiety and dysphoria. Across both studies, preferential processing of angry faces at a 300-ms exposure duration was associated with a general tendency to experience a range of negative affect, rather than being specific to symptoms of either anxiety or dysphoria. In the second study, we found evidence of a suppressor relationship between anxiety and dysphoria in the prediction of delayed attentional biases (1,000 ms) for sad faces. In particular, dysphoria was specifically associated with biased attention toward sad cues, but only after statistically accounting for anxiety; by contrast, anxiety was specifically associated with attentional avoidance of sad cues, but only after statistically accounting for dysphoria. These results suggest that the specificity of relationships between components of negative affectivity and attention to emotional stimuli varies as a function of the time course at which attentional biases are assessed, highlighting the importance of evaluating both anxiety and dysphoria in research on attentional processing of emotional stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Procrastination and Depression from a Cognitive Perspective: An Exploration of the Associations Among Procrastinatory Automatic Thoughts,Rumination, and Mindfulness

Extensive research indicates that procrastination is associated with many maladaptive outcomes including diminished performance and greater psychological distress, but the specific factors and mechanisms associated with the vulnerability of procrastinators still need to be identified. The current study examined the associations among procrastination, ruminative brooding, mindfulness, and self-compassion. Procrastination was measured in terms of academic procrastination as well as a cognitive measure of procrastination examining the frequency of procrastination-related automatic thoughts. In addition to the main focus on the vulnerability of procrastinators, the question of whether students with multiple vulnerabilities would be particularly at risk for depression was also assessed. A sample of 214 undergraduate students completed measures of academic procrastination, procrastination-related automatic thoughts, rumination, mindfulness, self-compassion, and depression. Correlational analyses showed that both procrastination measures were associated with ruminative brooding as well as reduced mindfulness and self-compassion. Moderator-effect tests yielded no significant interactions. Overall, our findings highlight the relevance of cognitive factors in explaining procrastination and depression. Elevated levels on measures tapping cognitive risk factors (ruminative brooding and procrastination-related automatic thoughts) or a low level of protective, self-relevant cognitive factors associated with resilience (mindfulness and self-compassion) were related to a high level of procrastination and depression. These results imply that procrastinators might be vulnerable to depression due to the joint presence of these cognitive risk and resilience factors.     

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.     

Rumination,emotional intensity and emotional clarity

It has been suggested that a high tendency to ruminate presents a deficient emotion regulation. Past research found that people with high tendency to ruminate show sustained attention for negative stimuli and increased negative thinking, which may result in intensified experiences of negative emotions. Moreover, high level of rumination was associated with low emotional understanding. Accordingly, we hypothesized (1) high ruminators (HR) experience more intense emotional reactions than low ruminators (LR) for negative but not positive emotions, (2) LR have higher emotional clarity than HR, and (3) there would be the same pattern of results for brooding but not for reflective pondering. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, a rumination response style questionnaire, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. They also rated emotional intensity and identified emotion type for scene pictures from the CAP-D (Categorized Affective Pictures Database). The highest (HR) and lowest (LR) quarters of ruminators were compared on levels of emotional intensity and emotional clarity. We found HR experienced negative emotions more intensely than LR, with no difference for positive emotions. In contrast to our hypothesis, the two groups did not differ in their emotion understanding. This pattern of results was found for brooding but not for reflective pondering. Our research sheds light on the mechanism underlying rumination and emotion regulation.     

Understanding associations between negatively biased attention and depression and social anxiety: positively biased attention is key

ABSTRACT

Background and objectives: Although research supports the premise that depressed and socially anxious individuals direct attention preferentially toward negative emotional cues, little is known about how attention to positive emotional cues might modulate this negative attention bias risk process. The purpose of this study was to determine if associations between attention biases to sad and angry faces and depression and social anxiety symptoms, respectively, would be strongest in individuals who also show biased attention away from happy faces.

Methods: Young adults (N?=?151; 79% female; M?=?19.63 years) completed self-report measures of depression and social anxiety symptoms and a dot probe task to assess attention biases to happy, sad, and angry facial expressions.

Results: Attention bias to happy faces moderated associations between attention to negatively valenced faces and psychopathology symptoms. However, attention bias toward sad faces was positively and significantly related to depression symptoms only for individuals who also selectively attended toward happy faces. Similarly, attention bias toward angry faces was positively and significantly associated with social anxiety symptoms only for individuals who also selectively attended toward happy faces.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that individuals with high levels of depression or social anxiety symptoms attend preferentially to emotional stimuli across valences.     

Cognitive Vulnerability to Emotional Symptoms: Reconsidering the Role of Worry and Rumination

The present study explored the pathways whereby cognitive variables (worry, rumination) may explain the relation between neuroticism and emotional symptoms in a community sample of adults (N?=?499). All participants completed a battery of questionnaires including measures of neuroticism, worry, rumination, anxiety and depression. Multiple mediation and moderated mediation analyses were used. Worry was a common pathway explaining the effect of neuroticism on both anxiety and depressive symptoms. The brooding subtype of rumination significantly mediated the relation between neuroticism and anxiety symptoms, but the reflection subtype did not have a mediating effect. Although worry by itself mediated the association between neuroticism and anxiety symptoms, it required a certain level of brooding to exert its mediating effect on the relation between neuroticism and depressive symptoms. The results are discussed in light of previous research and recent developments in treatment. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.     

Rumination and worrying as possible mediators in the relation between neuroticism and symptoms of depression and anxiety in clinically depressed individuals

Rumination and worrying are considered possible mediating variables that may explain the relation between neuroticism and symptoms of depression and anxiety. The current study sought to examine the mediational effects of rumination and worry in the relationships between neuroticism and symptoms of depression and anxiety in a sample of clinically depressed individuals (N = 198). All patients completed a battery of questionnaires including measures of neuroticism, rumination, worrying, depression, and anxiety. Results showed that in subsequent analyses, rumination and worrying both mediated the relation between neuroticism and depression and anxiety. When rumination and worrying were simultaneously entered in the mediation analysis, only rumination was found to mediate the relation between neuroticism and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Two components of rumination (i.e., brooding and reflection) were also analyzed in the mediational analysis. Both reflection and brooding were significant mediators with respect to depressive symptoms, whereas brooding was the only significant mediator in relation to anxiety symptoms. The results are discussed in the light of current theories, previous research, and recent treatment developments. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Adaptive and maladaptive components of rumination? Diagnostic specificity and relation to depressive biases

The present study investigated the validity of the two-factor solution of items selected from the Rumination Scale of the Response Style Questionnaire proposed by Treynor, Gonzalez, and Nolen-Hoeksema (2003). In the first part of this study we used samples of currently depressed (MDD), formerly depressed (FD), socially anxious (SP), and healthy control participants to examine whether the brooding and reflective pondering components differentiate participants with an anxiety disorder from participants with depression. In the second part of this study we examined whether these components of rumination were differentially related to cognitive biases in depression. Overall, the MDD group exhibited higher brooding scores than did all other groups; SP and FD groups did not differ from each other but obtained higher brooding scores than did the control participants. Only the MDD and the control groups differed on the reflective pondering factor. Importantly, brooding and reflective pondering were differentially related to cognitive biases. Specifically, the correlation between brooding/reflective pondering and memory bias was not significant when depressive symptoms were partialed out. The correlation between brooding and attentional bias for sad faces, however, remained significant even when current depressive symptoms were taken into account. In sum, our results support the formulation that rumination is composed of an adaptive reflective pondering factor and a maladaptive brooding factor.     

Dispositional mindfulness attenuates the emotional attentional blink

Emotional stimuli have been shown to automatically hijack attention, hindering the detection of forthcoming targets. Mindfulness is defined as a present moment non-judgemental attentional stance that can be cultivated by meditation practices, but that may present interindividual variability in the general population. The mechanisms underlying modification in emotional reactivity linked to mindfulness are still a matter of debate. In particular, it is not clear whether mindfulness is associated with a diminished emotional response, or with faster recovery. We presented participants with target pictures embedded in a rapid visual presentation stream. The targets could be preceded by negative, neutral or scrambled critical distractors. We showed that dispositional mindfulness, in particular the Non-reacting facet, was related to faster disengagement of attention from emotional stimuli. These results could have implications for mood disorders characterised by an exaggerated attentional bias toward emotional stimuli, such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders.     

A meta‐mood model of rumination and depression: Preliminary test in a non‐clinical population

Depressive rumination and trait meta‐mood (emotional attention, emotional clarity and emotional repair) have been suggested as vulnerability factors leading to depression, but less is known about the associations among them. In this study, we examined the relationships between trait meta‐mood, rumination and depressive symptomatology. Using structural equation analysis in a large sample of a non‐clinical population we found a preliminary test of the role of trait meta‐mood dimensions in rumination and depressive symptomatology. Results indicated that attention to feelings has two pathways in its relation with rumination and depressive mood. On the one hand, emotional attention was associated with emotional clarity, and emotional clarity with emotional repair, which was related to lower depressive symptomatology, in part, by reducing rumination. On the other hand, emotional attention was directly associated with ruminative thoughts which, in turn, were related to higher depressive mood. Findings are discussed in terms of the implications of beliefs about emotions in the treatment of depression.     

Healthy brooders employ more attentional resources when disengaging from the negative: an event-related fMRI study

Depressive brooding is considered a maladaptive ruminative-thinking style that has been shown to be highly correlated with major depression. The present study in healthy participants employed event-related fMRI to uncover the neural underpinnings of emotional disengagement as it relates to depressive brooding. Thirty-four healthy, never depressed individuals performed an emotional go/no-go task with a rapid presentation of emotional faces. We focused on the contrast of inhibiting sad (happy/no-go) versus inhibiting happy (sad/no-go) information. This contrast allowed us to assess possible difficulties in disengaging from emotionally negative, as compared with emotionally positive, faces. At the behavioral level, only in high brooders were higher self-reported brooding scores correlated with more errors when sad information was inhibited, relative to happy information. At the neural level, across all participants, brooding scores were positively correlated with activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC; BA 46), implying that high brooders show higher DLPFC involvement when successfully disengaging from a series of negative stimuli. These results may suggest that healthy individuals who report a high brooding thinking style need to recruit more attentional control in order to disengage successfully from negative information, in a way that may be related to emotion regulation strategies. These mechanisms might protect them from developing depressive symptoms.     

Daily and trait rumination: diurnal cortisol patterns in adolescent girls

Rumination is a maladaptive form of emotion regulation associated with psychopathology. Research with adults suggests that rumination covaries with diurnal cortisol rhythms, yet this has not been examined among adolescents. Here, we examine the day-to-day covariation between rumination and cortisol, and explore whether trait rumination is associated with alterations in diurnal cortisol rhythms among adolescent girls. Participants (N?=?122) provided saliva samples 3 times per day over 3 days, along with daily reports of stress and rumination, questionnaires assessing trait rumination related to peer stress, and diagnostic interviews assessing depression and anxiety. Greater rumination than usual during the day was associated with lower cortisol awakening responses the following morning, but this effect was not significant after accounting for wake time and an objective measure of adherence to the saliva sampling protocol. Trait rumination was associated with lower average cortisol levels at waking and flatter diurnal slopes, accounting for wake time, protocol compliance, and other factors. These patterns may help to explain why rumination is related to the development of psychopathology.     

Attentional Processing of Threat in Bipolar Disorder: Going Beyond Mood-Congruency

Emotional processing in bipolar disorder (BD) entails a complex attentional pattern not merely restricted to happy or sad biases, but also directed towards threatening information. This study examined threat-related bias on attentional orienting when participants were not instructed about the presentation of emotional stimuli (i.e., implicit instructions). An emotional dot-probe task in which an emotional face (i.e., threat, sad, happy) is simultaneously displayed with a neutral face was applied to BD individuals in their different episodes: mania (n?=?26), depression (n?=?24), and euthymia (n?=?28) as well as to a group of healthy controls (n?=?28). Symptomatic BD patients (i.e., in a manic or depressive episode) showed an attentional orienting bias toward threatening faces but not for happy or sad faces, while euthymic BD patients did not exhibit any attentional bias for emotional stimuli. A bias toward happy faces was found in the control group. Threat-related bias was not related to the severity of affective and anxiety symptoms in BD. When attention is not explicitly directed to emotional information, threat-related bias may characterize attentional orienting during mania and depression, but may be attenuated during euthymia.