Emotional information processing in mood disorders: a review of behavioral and neuroimaging findings

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: A relatively long history of research has shown that mood disorders are associated with abnormalities in the processing of emotional stimuli. Only the most recent studies, however, have begun to elucidate the specificity and neural basis of these abnormalities. This article reviews and discusses the results of these studies. RECENT FINDINGS: Individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder exhibit an attentional bias toward negative emotional cues (e.g. sad faces), an attentional bias away from positive emotional cues (e.g. happy faces), and an enhanced memory for negative emotional material. Compared with healthy controls, individuals with major depressive disorder show increased neural…