The Effects of Subliminal Goal Priming on Emotional Response Inhibition in Cases of Major Depression.

Man Zhang,Yijia Zhao,Can Jiao,Shufang Zhang,Yonger Wang,Ni Chen,Jing Zhang,Yuqi Chen,Suhong Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.542454

Abstract

Previous studies have provided evidence that automatic emotion regulation (AER), which is primed by control goals, can change emotion trajectory unconsciously. However, the cognitive mechanism and associated changes in depression remain unclear. The current study aimed to examine whether subliminal goal priming could change the emotional response inhibition among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and their healthy controls. A group of patients with depression and a healthy control group were both primed subliminally by playing control goal related or neutral words for 20 ms each; afterward, they judged the gender of happy or angry faces in an emotional Go/No-Go task. A group of depressed patients and a healthy control group both were both primed subliminally with control goal-related words (20 ms) or neutral words (20 ms), and they judged the gender of happy or angry faces in an emotional Go/No-Go task. Among patients with depression, there were fewer false alarms of the No-Go response to emotional stimulus after priming with control goal rather than neutral words. Meanwhile, patients with MDD in the subliminal regulation goal priming condition reacted faster to happy rather than angry faces; no significant difference was found in the subliminal neutral priming condition. These findings suggest the malleability of inhibitory control in depression using subliminal priming goals.

Highlights

Deficits in emotional regulation have been reported to be related to mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety (Rive et al, 2013)
This study aimed to examine whether subliminal priming of control goals would modulate emotional response inhibition among patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) and their healthy controls
The simple effect analysis revealed that the false alarm was lower for MDD patients in the subliminal control priming condition than in the subliminal neutral goal priming condition (p < 0.05)

Summary

Introduction

Deficits in emotional regulation have been reported to be related to mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety (Rive et al, 2013). Relevant studies have reported a significant relationship between AER and depression vulnerability (McFarland and Buehler, 1998; Koole and Jostmann, 2004; Ehring et al, 2010). Subliminal Priming Response Inhibition Depression regulation that produced positive thoughts in response to acute exclusion (DeWall et al, 2011). Zhang and Lu (2012) found that depressive symptoms among adolescents were negatively correlated with No-Go P3 amplitudes elicited by unconsciously regulating negative emotions in an implicit emotional Go/No-Go task. The present study manipulates AER to examine its effect on emotional processing in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients

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