Controlling Emotions? Cognitive control and daily emotion regulation in individuals with major depression or borderline personality disorder.

重度抑郁症（MDD）和边缘型人格障碍（BPD）是两种与情绪调节障碍相关的最突出的精神障碍。令人惊讶的是，只有很少的研究直接比较这两种疾病，以解开情绪调节（ER）中共有的和特定的障碍缺陷。将重度抑郁症或BPD患者与健康对照组进行比较的研究表明，这两组患者的特点都是更多地使用适应不良策略来调节他们的情绪（例如，反刍和抑制）。此外，与健康个体相比，重度抑郁症或BPD个体在使用适应性内耗策略（如重新评估）方面也可能不太有效。因此，本项目主要关注研究最多的三种内情策略，即重新评价、反刍和抑制。重要的是，理论模型将有效内啡肽与认知控制功能联系起来。事实上，最近的研究结果表明，不同的认知控制功能在成功的情绪调节中起着至关重要的作用。鉴于MDD或BPD患者的特征是情绪信息的认知控制受损，研究这些认知控制受损是否可以解释他们情绪调节的困难将是有趣的。因此，本研究的目的是探讨重度抑郁症或BPD患者日常生活中认知控制功能的个体差异与上述ER策略的损害之间的联系。具体来说，该项目评估了四种不同的认知控制功能的表现，这些功能与成功的情绪调节有关：反应抑制、工作记忆表征的更新、任务或心理集之间的转换和干扰控制。目前的项目进一步使用动态评估来检查情绪调节策略的使用和有效性。将认知参数评估与情绪调节动态评估相结合的研究目前尚缺乏。对这些障碍中与情绪调节障碍相关的认知过程的检查将是进一步提高我们对情绪调节的理解并最终推进MDD和BDP治疗策略的重要一步。

Major depressive disorder (MDD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are the two most prominent mental disorders associated with impairments in emotion regulation. Surprisingly, there have only been very few studies directly comparing these two disorders to disentangle shared and disorder-specific deficits in emotion regulation (ER). Studies comparing individuals with MDD or BPD to healthy controls have shown that both groups are characterized by an increased use of maladaptive strategies to regulate their emotions (e.g., rumination and suppression). In addition, individuals with MDD or BPD as compared to healthy individuals might also be less effective in using adaptive ER strategies (e.g. reappraisal). Thus, the present project focuses on the three most researched ER strategies, namely reappraisal, rumination, and suppression. Importantly, theoretical models link effective ER to cognitive control functions. Indeed, recent findings suggest that different cognitive control functions play a crucial role in successful emotion regulation. Given that individuals with MDD or BPD are characterized by impairments in the cognitive control of emotional information, it will be intriguing to examine whether these impairments in cognitive control might explain their difficulty in emotion regulation. Thus, the aim of the present research project is to investigate the link between individual differences in cognitive control functions and impairments in the above mentioned ER strategies in the daily life of individuals with MDD or BPD. Specifically, the project assesses performance in four different cognitive control functions that have been implicated in successful emotion regulation: response inhibition, updating of working memory representations, shifting between tasks or mental sets and interference control. The current project further uses ambulatory assessment to examine the use and effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies. Studies combining the assessment of cognitive parameters with the ambulatory assessment of emotion regulation have been missing so far. An examination of cognitive processes associated with impairments in emotion regulation in these disorders will be an important step to further improve our understanding of emotion regulation and to ultimately advance the treatment strategies for MDD and BDP.