Attention Bias in Rumination and Depression: Cognitive Mechanisms and Brain Networks

Abstract

Depressed individuals exhibit biased attention to negative emotional information. However, much remains unknown about (a) the neurocognitive mechanisms of attention bias (e.g., qualities of negative information that evoke attention bias or functional brain network dynamics that may reflect a propensity for biased attention) and (b) distinctions in the types of attention bias related to different dimensions of depression (e.g., ruminative depression). Here, in 50 women, clinical depression was associated with facilitated processing of negative information only when such information was self-descriptive and task-relevant. However, among depressed individuals, trait rumination was associated with biases toward negative self-descriptive information regardless of task goals, especially when negative self-descriptive material was paired with self-referential images that should be ignored. Attention biases in ruminative depression were mediated by dynamic variability in frontoinsular resting-state functional connectivity. These findings highlight potential cognitive and functional network mechanisms of attention bias specifically related to the ruminative dimension of depression.