The Potential Benefit of Cartoon Stimuli for Depression

Rowena Kong

doi:10.35248/2167-1044.19.8.341

Abstract

The possible significance of compromised exposure to positive stimuli during an individual's early childhood could contribute to impoverished positive memory development and subsequently dysregulated emotional responses to such valence of stimuli in adulthood. This could potentially explain dampened positive emotional responses of depressed individuals as reported in imaging studies of the brain's mesolimbic reward pathways. This paper provides emphasis and suggestions for a preliminary exploration of positive cartoon stimuli as a new tool in therapeutic targets for depression treatment and research that cater to a subgroup of depressive individuals who had experienced childhood trauma and stressful episodes as their primary causes of the disorder. Cartoon stimuli as a form of visual and interactive therapy may provide a compensatory and restorative component for the emotional losses and insults on an otherwise healthy childhood positivity required for normal and balanced neuropsychological development and growth. Unfortunately, such readily available resources for therapy have hardly been considered and utilized. The potential benefit of exposure to cartoon stimuli may extend beyond the method of positive mood induction and further addresses the need for both implicit and explicit comfort, understanding, emotional and situational relatedness that compensate for the lack of such stimulation during an early stressful life. Through evoking childlike positive associations, it is hypothesized that depression could reduce in severity and the threshold for activation of response to positive stimuli and themes lowered, thereby restoring negative and positive mood imbalances.

Highlights

Depression is considered as a mood disorder that is characterized by symptoms such as anhedonia or a decreased ability to feel pleasure, increased frequency of negative mood and reduced interest in activities which one used to enjoy
Research has yet to explore on the possible potential benefit of visual exposure to cartoon images and animation as a method of therapy that delivers positive emotional comfort and relatedness beyond mood induction, in particular to subgroups of depressed individuals with childhood trauma and stressful experiences as causal contribution to their present development of depression
The results demonstrate that funny and neutral cartoons could induce positive mood as successfully as samples of facial expressions posed by human photograph subjects in both groups of depressed and healthy participants

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Depression is considered as a mood disorder that is characterized by symptoms such as anhedonia or a decreased ability to feel pleasure, increased frequency of negative mood and reduced interest in activities which one used to enjoy. Depression is arguably a disorder involving an imbalance between, as opposed to an absence or presence of, opposite positive and negative valences of the mood spectrum that has been tipped over to the latter extreme, which could be attributed to an overexposure to high stress experience(s) in early life and/or a recent period Such an imbalance in emotional state and response of depressed individuals may be worth targeting in treatment. It is obvious that a period of early life stress provides an overexposure and stimulation of negative experiences and neuropsychological responses during a stage of vulnerable development that has long-term consequences stretching into adulthood While it is questionable whether the duration of effect of positive mood induction evoked by visual. Childhood memories and their associations, OPEN ACCESS Freely available online have an influence on an individual’s past and present emotional states and negative memories may cause one to be more vulnerable to exhibiting and exacerbating congruent negative emotional responses

LITERATURE REVIEW

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION