Processing preferences for self-related emotional words as markers of cognitive vulnerability and well-being – cerebral and behavioral correlates and mechanisms

抑郁症是最常见的精神和情感障碍之一。由于抑郁症的发病率越来越高，对身心健康造成了许多负面影响，预防抑郁症状已成为旨在保护个人福祉的临床和心理健康计划中的突出优先事项。认知易损性模型提出了两个主要的认知风险因素，这两个因素有利于健康个体抑郁症状的发生和严重程度。这些问题包括明显的自我关注以及消极的情绪处理偏差。根据认知脆弱性的双过程模型，这两个风险因素并不是独立的，而是相互影响的。然而，这两个因素如何以及在什么实验工艺条件下相互影响仍不清楚。本项目提案旨在通过调查受控实验实验室条件下风险因素之间的相互作用和这种相互作用的机制来弥合这一差距。根据认知脆弱性的两个过程模型，我们将研究以下核心问题：首先，在有和没有抑郁症状的健康个体中，自我相关和情绪处理在哪些水平上进行刺激和信息处理(刺激驱动、联想与认知控制、反思)？第二，自我参照注意加工、自我参照反思性情绪加工、消极情绪与积极情绪如何影响这种互动？在实验中，刺激(词)将被使用不同的情感意义(积极，消极，中性)和他们的自我参照程度(“自我”与“没有自我参照”与“其他第三人称参照”)。在方法上，将通过脑电(EEG)和事件相关脑电位(ERPs)的分析，在所有实验中精确地研究不同加工条件下刺激加工的时间进程。刺激回忆和刺激评估的个体差异将通过行为测量进行评估。此外，在实验评估后的6个月和12个月的随访中，将探索脑电-事件相关电位作为认知脆弱性和主观幸福感的指标。综上所述，该项目将回答抑郁症相关情绪处理偏好的特殊性、潜在机制及其作为抑郁症和主观幸福感临床相关标志的重要性。在成功验证本项目提案中测试的假设后，可以开发基于EEG-ERP的实验测试，在此基础上，可以在抑郁障碍的预防、干预和治疗过程中检测和监控与抑郁相关的加工偏差。

Depression is among the most frequent mental and affective disorders. Due to its increasing prevalence and its many negative consequences on mental and physical health, the prevention of depressive symptoms has received outstanding priority in clinical and mental health programs aimed at protecting individual well-being. Cognitive vulnerability models propose two major cognitive risk factors that favor the onset and severity of depressive symptoms in healthy individuals. These include a pronounced self-focus as well as a negative emotional processing bias. According to two-process models of cognitive vulnerability these two risk factors are not independent but affect each other. Nevertheless, how and in which experimental processing conditions both factors influence each other is still unclear. This project proposal aims to close this gap by investigating the interaction between both risk-factors and the mechanisms underlying this interaction under controlled experimental laboratory conditions. In line with two-process models of cognitive vulnerability the following core questions will be investigated: First, at which levels of stimulus- and information processing (stimulus-driven, associative vs. cognitive controlled, reflective) do self-related and emotional processing interact in healthy individuals with and without depressive symptoms? Second, how do self-referential attentive processing, self-referential reflective emotional processing and negative vs. positive mood influence this interaction? Experimentally, stimuli (words) will be used that vary in their emotional meaning (positive, negative, neutral) and in their degree of self-reference ("self" vs. "no self-reference" vs. "other 3rd-person reference"). Methodologically, the time course of stimulus processing will be precisely investigated in all experiments across the different processing conditions by means of electroencephalography (EEG) and the analysis of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Individual differences in stimulus recall and stimulus appraisal will be assessed by behavioral measures. In addition, EEG-ERP correlates will be explored as indicators of cognitive vulnerability and subjective well-being at 6 and 12 months follow-up after the experimental assessment. Taken together, this project will provide answers to the specificity of depression-related emotional processing preferences, the underlying mechanisms and their importance as clinically relevant markers of depression and subjective well-being. After successful validation of the hypotheses tested in this project proposal, EEG-ERP-based experimental tests can be developed on the basis of which depression-related processing biases can be detected and monitored during the prevention, intervention and treatment of depressive disorders.