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Background Studies investigating the long-term effect of attention bias modification (ABM) in clinical samples are lacking. This study investigates the 6-months follow-up effect of ABM on depressive symptoms in participant with major depressive disorder with and without comorbid disorders. Methods We conducted a double-blind randomized sham-controlled trial in 101 participants between 19 November 2019, and 17 August 2021. Follow-up ended 3 April 2022. Participants were allocated to ABM or sham condition twice daily for 14 consecutive days. Primary outcomes were the total score on the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) at 6 months, mean Brief State Rumination Inventory (BSRI) score post-treatment and reduction in BSRI post-treatment. Secondary outcome was change in attentional bias (AB). The trial was preregistered in ClinicalTrials.gov (#NCT 04137367). Results A total of 118 patients aged 18–65 years were assessed for eligibility, and 101 were randomized and subjected to intention-to-treat analyses. At 6 months, ABM had no effect on depression and anxiety compared to a sham condition. While rumination decreased during the intervention, there was no effect of condition on rumination and AB. Predictor analysis did not reveal differences between participants with ongoing major depressive episode or comorbid anxiety. Conclusion Compared to sham training, there was no effect of ABM on depressive symptoms at 6-months follow-up. Since the intervention failed at modifying AB, it is unclear whether changes in AB are related to long-term outcomes.

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.

Background: Decision making in binge drinkers is both risky and disadvantageous; however, previous operationalization of binge drinking has failed to capture the dimensionality of the phenomenon, differentiate drinking pattern from actual alcohol consumption and control for the influence of other substance use and general executive ability. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess decision-making performance at various levels of binge drinking severity, while controlling for general executive ability and substance use.Methods: A total of 121 students, aged 18–25, were assessed by means of the binge score derived from the Alcohol Use Questionnaire (AUQ). They completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Information Sampling Task (IST), to assess decision making under ambiguity and risk, respectively. The Letter Number Sequencing (LNS) task was used to control for the influence of general executive function.Results: When controlling for general executive function and use of other substances, ...

Depression is a common illness which tends to have a relapsing progression. Revealing vulnerability factors is an important step towards improved treatment and prevention. Previous studies of individuals in remission indicate that inhibitory control is more strongly impaired than other cognitive functions. Studies have mostly used Stroop tasks; it is unclear how this population performs on other measures of inhibition. Abnormal reactions to errors may also promote depression relapse, but this has rarely been studied in remitted depression. We used a Stop Signal task and Stroop inhibition task to investigate inhibitory function and post-error reaction time adjustments in 54 individuals with a history of depression and 185 never-depressed controls. Inhibitory processing was slower among the remitted depressed individuals on the Stop Signal task, but no difference was found in Stroop inhibition. The groups were not different on post-error adjustments. This finding extends the understanding of inhibitory deficiency in this population and offers insight into trait markers of depression.

Serotoninergic transmission is reliably implicated in inhibitory control processes. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis if serotonin transporter polymorphisms mediate inhibitory control in healthy people. 141 healthy subjects, carefully screened for previous and current psychopathology, were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR and rs25531 polymorphisms. Inhibitory control was ascertained with the Stop Signal Task (SST) from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). The triallelic gene model, reclassified and presented in a biallelic functional model, revealed a dose-dependent gene effect on SST performance with Individuals carrying the low expressive allele had inferior inhibitory control compared to high expressive carriers. This directly implicates serotonin transporter polymorphisms (5-HTTLPR plus rs25531) in response inhibition in healthy subjects.

Background: Impairments in executive functions (EFs) are related to binge drinking in young adulthood, but research on how EFs influence future binge drinking is lacking. The aim of the current report is therefore to investigate the association between various EFs and later severity of, and change in, binge drinking over a prolonged period during young adulthood. Methods: At baseline, 121 students reported on their alcohol habits (Alcohol use disorder identification test; Alcohol use questionnaire). Concurrently, EFs [working memory, reversal, set-shifting, response inhibition, response monitoring and decision-making (with ambiguity and implicit risk)] were assessed. Eighteen months later, information on alcohol habits for 103 of the participants were gathered. Data were analyzed by means of multilevel regression modeling. Results: Future severity of binge drinking was uniquely predicted by performance on the Information sampling task, assessing risky decision-making (β = -1.86, 95% CI: -3.69, -0.04). None of the study variables predicted severity or change in binge drinking. Conclusion: Future severity of binge drinking was associated with making risky decisions in the prospect for gain, suggesting reward hypersensitivity. Future studies should aim at clarifying whether there is a causal association between decision-making style and binge drinking. Performance on all executive tasks was unrelated to change in binge drinking patterns; however, the finding was limited by overall small changes, and needs to be confirmed with longer follow-up periods.

In alcohol use disorder, deficits in cognitive control (i.e., inhibition and response monitoring) might underlie the loss of self-control and, thereby, failure to adjust alcohol consumption in response to associated negative consequences. According to the continuum hypothesis, the magnitude of these deficits should be related in a stair-case manner, with the greatest deficits among its heaviest consumers. The current study aims at investigating this association in the general population. This is a cross-sectional study of 397 participants aged 18–64 years, who self-reported their mean weekly alcohol consumption and were assessed with the stop-signal task, estimating inhibitory efficiency (stop-signal reaction time; SSRT) and response monitoring (post-error slowing; PES). Set-shifting ability was investigated by the intra-extra dimensional (IED) set-shifting task. Three ANCOVAs were performed with SSRT, PES, and IED as the dependent variables (DV), respectively, and alcohol consumption levels as the independent variable. Covariates were included when they were significantly associated with the DV. Compared to the teetotalers, all levels of alcohol consumption were significantly associated to lower SSRT, which implies more efficient inhibitory control; however, there was no significant difference in SSRT between other consumption levels. The two highest consumption groups had significantly shorter PES when compared to teetotalers and/or the lowest consumption group, implying less behavioral adjustment after failures. IED was not significantly related to the alcohol consumption levels. There was no stair-case relation between weekly consumption levels and cognitive control functions within this general population, which might be due to the limited consumption range investigated.

Binge drinking leads to brain damage. However, at present few studies have taken into account the continuity in the binge drinking phenomenon, and treated binge drinking as a clearly separable category from other types of drinking patterns. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether severity of binge drinking can predict specific neurocognitive changes in healthy young adults. A total of 121 students aged 18 to 25 were assessed by means of the three last questions of the Alcohol Use Questionnaire combined into binge score. The binge score was entered as a predictor of cognitive performance of the CANTAB Stop Signal Task including reaction time, inhibition processing time, and response adjustment. Anxiety and depression symptoms were also measured. Binge score significantly predicted less adjustment following failures, and faster reaction times. Binge score did not predict inhibition performance. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were not significantly related to binge score. Binge drinking in healthy young adults predicts impairment in response adjustment and fast reaction time, but is unrelated to inhibition. The study supports the view that binge drinking is a continuous phenomenon, rather than discrete category, and the findings are possibly shedding light on why binge drinkers continue their drinking pattern despite negative consequences. (JINS, 2016, 22, 38–46)