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Theoretical models define how stressful life events interact with cognitive vulnerability factors, leading to depression. This study investigates whether these factors simultaneously predict mood variability in response to stress in a clinical sample. We included 92 participants fulfilling the criteria for Major Depressive Disorder. The majority also had comorbid anxiety disorder. By inducing stress based on an autobiographical imagery script, we investigate how stress interacts with attentional processes, interpretation bias, rumination, and cognitive control in predicting mood reactivity and recovery. We were successful in inducing stress and subsequent negative mood. Mood reactivity was associated with increased orienting ability and state rumination. Mood recovery was predicted by orienting and an interpretation bias towards sad stimuli. Mood reactivity and recovery predicted depression severity over and above cognitive vulnerability factors. Findings could inform future treatment targets if causality is established.

Depression is a heterogeneous mental disorder involving a complex interplay between potential etiological and maintenance factors. The current study examined how depression heterogeneity is related to attentional functioning. Relying on person-specific network models, we explored the associations between symptom centrality (expected influence) and impairments in attention (orienting, alerting and executive control). Participants (N = 82) with ongoing and remitted depression were enrolled to 13 days of intensive assessment of depression symptoms in their daily life using a smartphone app. Based on these data, person-specific network models were estimated using vector autoregression modelling. Orienting, alerting and executive control were assessed using the Attentional Network Test in the laboratory. Person-specific networks showed large variability in symptom dynamics. Higher centrality for low positive affect and fatigue were associated with reduced orienting efficiency (r = .35, p < .05; r = .30, p < .05, respectively). Results are discussed in relation to anhedonia- and reward-related processes. In conclusion, this study points towards the importance of individual symptom dynamics when considering cognitive functioning in depression.