title: Biased processing of emotional information in girls at risk for depression.
abstract: Researchers have documented that children of depressed mothers are at elevated risk for developing a depressive disorder themselves. There is currently little understanding, however, of what factors place these children at elevated risk. In the present study, the authors investigated whether never-disordered daughters whose mothers have experienced recurrent episodes of depression during their daughters' lifetime are characterized by biased processing of emotional information. Following a negative mood induction, participants completed an emotional-faces dot-probe task. Daughters at elevated risk for depression, but not control daughters of never-disordered mothers, selectively attended to negative facial expressions. In contrast, only control daughters selectively attended to positive facial expressions. These results provide support for cognitive vulnerability models of depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Jutta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Joormann
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Talbot
authors.forename: Ian H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Gotlib
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D001288:Attention; D015982:Bias; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires