Emotion Processing In Patients Research Articles

Neuronal response to high negative affective stimuli in major depressive disorder: An fMRI study

BackgroundDisturbed emotion processing underlies depression. We examined the neuronal underpinnings of emotional processing in patients (PAT) with major depressive disorder (MDD) compared to healthy volunteers (HV) using functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) scan. MethodsThirty-six MDD patients and 30 HV underwent T2-weighted fMRI assessments during the presentation of an implicit affective processing task in three conditions. They differed regarding their affective quality (=valence, high negative, low negative and neutral stimuli) and regarding the arousal based on stimuli from the International Affective Picture System. ResultsGroup contrasts showed lower left-sided activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anterior PFC, precentral and premotor cortex in PAT compared with HV (Cluster-level threshold, 5000 iterations, p<0.01). We found a significant interaction effect of valence and group, a significant effect of emotional valence and a significant effect of group. All effects were shown in brain regions within the emotional network (Cluster-level threshold, 5000 iterations, p<0.01). Higher arousal (rho=-0.33, p<0.01) and higher valence (rho=-0.33, p<0.01) during high negative stimuli presentation as well as more severe depression (Beck Depression Inventory II [BDI II]; r = 0.39, p = 0.01) were significantly negatively associated with left DLFPC activity in patients. LimitationsPotential influence of psychopharmacological drugs on functional activation is one of the most discussed source of bias in studies with medicated psychiatric patients. ConclusionsThe results highlight the importance of left DLPFC during the processing of negative emotional stimuli in MDD. The integration of a neurophysiological model of emotional processing in MDD may help to clarify and improve therapeutic options.

The Course of Disease in Major Depressive Disorder Is Associated With Altered Activity of the Limbic System During Negative Emotion Processing

BackgroundBrain functional alterations during emotion processing in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) compared with healthy control subjects (HCs) are frequently reported. However, evidence for functional correlates of emotion processing with regard to MDD trajectories is scarce. This study investigates the role of lifetime disease course for limbic brain activation during negative emotional face processing in patients with MDD. MethodsIn a large sample of patients with MDD (n = 333; 58.55% female) and HCs (n = 333; 60.06% female), brain activation was investigated during a negative emotional face-processing task within a cross-sectional design. Differences between HC and MDD groups were analyzed. Previous disease course, characterized by 2 components, namely hospitalization and duration of illness, was regressed on brain activation of the amygdala, (para-)hippocampus, and insula in patients with MDD. ResultsPatients with MDD showed increased activation in the amygdala, insula, and hippocampus compared with HCs (all p values corrected for familywise error [pFWE] < .045). The hospitalization component showed negative associations with brain activation in the bilateral insula (right: pFWE = .026, left: pFWE = .019) and (para-)hippocampus (right: pFWE = .038, left: pFWE = .031). No significant association was found for the duration of illness component (all pFWE > .057). ConclusionsThis study investigated negative emotion processing in a large sample of patients with MDD and HCs. Our results confirm limbic hyperactivation in patients with MDD during negative emotion processing; however, this hyperactivation may resolve with a more severe lifetime disease course in the insula and (para-)hippocampus—brain regions involved in emotion processing and regulation. These findings need further replication in longitudinal studies.

A mind-body lifestyle intervention enhances emotional control in patients with major depressive disorder: a randomized, controlled study.

To investigate the effects of the Dejian mind-body intervention (DMBI), on depressive symptoms and electroencephalography (EEG) changes in relation to emotional processing in patients with depression. Seventy-five age-, gender-, and education-matched participants with depression were randomly assigned to receive either Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) or DMBI or were placed in a control group. Overall depressive syndrome, specific mood-related symptoms (Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression, Beck Depression Inventory), and EEG data were collected individually during a resting state and during affective image viewing before and after 10 weeks of intervention. After intervention, both the DMBI and CBT groups showed significantly reduced levels of overall depressive syndrome and mood-related symptoms (Ps ≤ 0.002) than the control group. In addition, the DMBI group demonstrated a significantly greater extent of elevation in fronto-posterior EEG theta coherence on the right hemisphere when viewing different mood-induction (neutral, positive, and negative) stimuli than the CBT and control groups (Ps < 0.03). The elevated intra-right fronto-posterior coherence when viewing mood-induction stimuli correlated with improved mood levels after the intervention (Ps < 0.05). Our findings also showed that, only in the DMBI group, there was a significant suppression of theta source activity at the posterior and subcortical brain regions that are known to mediate negative emotional responses and the self-absorbed mode of thinking. The findings of reduced depressive symptoms and elevated frontoposterior coherence suggest that the DMBI can enhance emotional control in depression.

Augmentation in restless legs syndrome: an eye tracking study on emotion processing.

ObjectiveTo assess emotional processing and alexithymia in patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS) with augmentation versus those who never had augmentation.MethodsWe recruited 26 patients who had a history of augmentation (AUG), either current or past, 27 RLS patients treated with dopamine agonists who never had augmentation (RLS controls), and 21 healthy controls (HC). All participants were screened for impulse control disorders (ICDs). Alexithymia was assessed by means of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale – 20 (TAS‐20). Facial emotion recognition was tested through an eye‐tracking task. Furthermore, all participants performed neuropsychological tests assessing global cognitive status, impulsivity, anxiety, and depression.ResultsICD symptoms occurred more frequently in AUG patients than in RLS controls (P = 0.047). Patients with AUG scored higher on the TAS‐20 (P = 0.007) and the attentional subdomain of an impulsivity scale (BIS‐11; P = 0.015) compared to HC. Patients with AUG also performed worse on the facial emotion recognition task relative to RLS controls (P = 0.009) and HC (P = 0.003). We found a group difference for the time to first fixation and the fixation count in the mouth region (P = 0.019 and P = 0.021, respectively). There were no other differences in the eye tracking examination.InterpretationThis study showed evidence of poorer emotional processing in patients who had augmentation compared to RLS patients without augmentation and healthy controls. The altered exploration pattern of faces and the higher alexithymia scores suggest abnormalities in emotion processing in patients with augmentation.

Abnormal neural activities in adults and youths with major depressive disorder during emotional processing: a meta-analysis.

Abnormal neural activities during emotional processing have been found in both adults and youths with major depressive disorder. However, findings were inconsistent in each group and cannot be compared to each other. We first identified neuroimaging experiments that revealed abnormal neural activities during emotional processing in patients with major depressive disorder published from January 1997 to January 2019. Then we conducted voxel-wise meta-analyses on adult and youth patients separately and compared the two age groups using direct meta-comparison. Fifty-four studies comprising 1141 patients and 1242 healthy controls were identified. Both adult and youth patients showed abnormal neural activities in anterior cingulate cortex, insula, superior and middle temporal gyrus, and occipital cortex compared to healthy controls. However, hyperactivities in the superior and middle frontal gyrus, amygdala, and hippocampus were only observed in adult patients, while hyperactivity in the striatum was only found in youth patients compared to controls. In addition, compared with youths, adult patients exhibited significantly greater abnormal activities in insula, middle frontal gyrus, and hippocampus, and significantly lower abnormal activities in middle temporal gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus, and striatum. The common alterations confirmed the negative processing bias in major depressive disorder. Both adult and youth patients were suggested to have disturbed emotional perception, appraisal, and reactivity. However, adult patients might be more subject to the impaired appraisal and reactivity processes, while youth patients were more subject to the impaired perception process. These findings help us understand the progressive pathophysiology of major depressive disorder.

Lateralization of facial emotion processing and facial paresis in Vestibular Schwannoma patients.

ObjectiveThis study investigates whether there exist differences in lateralization of facial emotion processing in patients suffering from Vestibular Schwannoma (VS) based on the presence of a facial paresis and their degree of facial functioning as measured by the House Brackmann Grading scale (HBG).MethodsForty‐four VS patients, half of them with a facial paresis and half of them without a facial paresis, rated how emotive they considered images of faces showing emotion in the left versus right visual field. Stimuli consisted of faces with a neutral half and an emotional (happy or angry) half. The study had a mixed design with emotional expression (happy vs. angry) and emotional half (left vs. right visual field) of the faces as repeated measures, and facial paresis (present vs. absent) and HBG as between subjects’ factors. The visual field bias was the main dependent variable.ResultsIn line with typical findings in the normal population, a left visual field bias showed in the current sample: patients judged emotional expressions shown in the left visual field as more emotive than those shown in the right visual field. No differences in visual field bias showed based on the presence of a facial paresis nor based on patients’ HBG.ConclusionVS patients show a left visual field bias when processing facial emotion. No differences in lateralization showed based on the presence of a facial paresis or on patients’ HBG. Based on this study, facial paresis thus does not affect the lateralization of facial emotion processing in patients with VS.

Emotional Processing in Patients With Early- and Late-Onset Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

ObjectiveTemporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) could cause various emotional symptoms due to the damages imposed on the temporal lobe. This study aimed at comparing emotional processing between patients with early- and late-onset TLE and a healthy group.MethodsIn a cross-sectional study, after a definitive diagnosis of TLE, 60 patients were compared with 60 healthy controls without any epilepsy to identify emotional-processing styles in them. The research instruments were the Emotional Processing Scale and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5)-based psychiatric interview. The obtained data were analyzed using a multivariate analysis of variance by SPSS.ResultsThe present study results suggested significant differences in emotional processing between the investigated epileptic and non-epileptic groups (P<0.01). Besides, emotional processing indicated significant differences in intrusion, the lack of attunement, and dissociation subscales between patients with early-onset TLE, compared to those with late-onset TLE.ConclusionThe obtained data revealed more emotional processing dysfunction in patients affected by TLE, compared to the non-epileptics. Besides, in some subscales of emotional processing, there was more malfunctioning in the early-onset TLE group, compared to the late-onset TLE group.

A negative bias in decoding positive social cues characterizes emotion processing in patients with symptom-remitted Borderline Personality Disorder

BackgroundImpairments in the domain of interpersonal functioning such as the feeling of loneliness and fear of abandonment have been associated with a negative bias during processing of social cues in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Since these symptoms show low rates of remission, high rates of recurrence and are relatively resistant to treatment, in the present study we investigated whether a negative bias during social cognitive processing exists in BPD even after symptomatic remission. We focused on facial emotion recognition since it is one of the basal social-cognitive processes required for successful social interactions and building relationships.MethodsNinety-eight female participants (46 symptom-remitted BPD [r-BPD]), 52 healthy controls [HC]) rated the intensity of anger and happiness in ambiguous (anger/happiness blends) and unambiguous (emotion/neutral blends) emotional facial expressions. Additionally, participants assessed the confidence they experienced in their own judgments.ResultsR-BPD participants assessed ambiguous expressions as less happy and as more angry when the faces displayed predominantly happiness. Confidence in these judgments did not differ between groups, but confidence in judging happiness in predominantly happy faces was lower in BPD patients with a higher level of BPD psychopathology.ConclusionsEvaluating social cues that signal the willingness to affiliate is characterized by a negative bias that seems to be a trait-like feature of social cognition in BPD. In contrast, confidence in judging positive social signals seems to be a state-like feature of emotion recognition in BPD that improves with attenuation in the level of acute BPD symptoms.

Differential effects of subcutaneous pulsatile versus oral hydrocortisone replacement therapy on fMRI resting state and task based emotional processing in patients with primary adrenal insufficiency

Differential effects of subcutaneous pulsatile versus oral hydrocortisone replacement therapy on fMRI resting state and task based emotional processing in patients with primary adrenal insufficiency

Emotion recognition and social cognition in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy

Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is the most common idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Disease onset is typically in puberty and poor social adjustment and behavioral disturbances, which resemble frontal lobe dysfunction, are often observed. In recent advanced brain imaging studies on JME patients, emotional and behavioral problems have been associated to subtle structural and functional alterations mainly in frontal cortex and thalamus. There is emerging evidence that patients with abnormal emotion processing and regulation, such as those with bipolar disorder, show disrupted connectivity between limbic structures and frontal cortices. There are no neuroimaging or neuropsychological studies related to emotion processing in patients with JME with a focus on limbic structures. We aimed to address the problem of emotional disturbances and social adjustment in JME patients from multiple aspects through thorough functional and structural assessment, which would potentially enable elaboration of a unifying concept explaining neurobiological background of disturbances in emotional processing and social adjustment in JME patients. Results of this study may potentially enable the development of psychological and pharmacological interventional strategies for managing behavioral disturbances in patients with JME.

Increased Reactivity of the Mesolimbic Reward System after Ketamine Injection in Patients with Treatment-resistant Major Depressive Disorder.

The antidepressant effect of ketamine is associated with increased activity in the reward circuitry of the brain and a suppression of circuitry that mediates perceptual processing of negative emotions. The duration of ketamine effect on these brain structures remains to be defined. As expected, ketamine administration led to an improvement in mood and global vigilance. The improvement in mood was accompanied by an increased recruitment of the orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum, medial substantial nigra and ventral tegmental area, structures that are part of the reward circuitry.Responses in the mesolimbic structures (amygdala, medial substantial nigra and ventral tegmental area, orbitofrontal cortex) to negative stimuli were decreased after ketamine administration.The data are consistent with the premise that ketamine induces sustained changes in the mesolimbic neural circuits to reset pathological reward and emotional processing. Ketamine rapidly improves maladaptive mood states in major depressive disorder, and some of the neural substrates underlying this therapeutic effect have been identified. This study aimed to identify functional changes within neural networks that may underlie the impact of ketamine on both reward and emotional processing in patients with treatment-resistant major depression. Ten adult patients with a Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale score above 25 were enrolled to receive a single intravenous administration of ketamine (0.5 mg/kg). Patients' performance along with related neural network activations were analyzed in a game-like reward task and in an emotional judgment task using functional magnetic resonance imaging 1 day before and 1 and 7 days after ketamine administration. A significant correlation (R = 0.46, P = 0.03) between the improvement of depression scores and the enhanced reaction time for positive items was found in the game-like reward task 1 day after ketamine administration. This enhanced sensitivity for rewarded items was accompanied by increased activity of reward-related brain regions, including the orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum, and the ventral tegmental area, an effect that persisted up to 1 week after ketamine injection. In the emotional judgment task, it was found that ketamine rapidly modified local brain activities in response to emotionally negative, positive, or neutral stimuli in the amygdala, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and in the ventral tegmental area. Single bolus ketamine administration rapidly triggers lasting changes in mesolimbic neural networks to improve pathologic reward and emotional processing in patients with major depressive disorder.

New imagery markers for the diagnosis of psychogenic non epileptic seizures: Presentation of the first results of the EMOCRISES study

Background Psychogenic non epileptic seizures (PNES) are paroxysmal events which look like epileptic seizures without paroxysmal neuronal activity. Actually, pathophysiology model of PNES, conceived from epidemiologic and pathopsychological data, have shown a crucial role of dissociation and emotional processing in genesis and sustainability of PNES. Objectives To investigate the cerebral emotional processing in patients with PNES versus patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and healthy controls (HC). We hypothesize patients with PNES have different emotional processing, especially an hyperactivation of limbic system and hypoactivation of motor and executive control versus patient with PTSD and HC. We also supposed that we will find an hyperconnectivity between areas engaged in emotional processing (insula, limbic system) and motor and executive control in PNES versus PTSD and HC. Methods In the EMOCRISES study, we recruited three groups of subjects: women with PNES, women with PTSD, and HC. On Siemens 3 T MRI (Prisma), these subjects realized a resting-state task and four emotional paradigms: an event-related paradigm, a blocked-related paradigm ant two fast periodic visual stimulations. For pre-processing, we use SPM12 software and PhysIO toolbox (TAPAS) for emotional paradigm, and Connectivity toolbox for resting-state. Results were visualized with Anatomist from BrainVisa. Results We present the first results of resting-state and blocked-paradigm between HC and patients with PNES. Conclusion If our hypotheses are confirmed, we could use these results to better diagnose PNES and, maybe, find new therapeutic targets for transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Neuro-Cognitive Remediation of Emotion Processing in Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder through Psychotherapy

Dynamic Deconstructive Psychotherapy has used neuroscience findings to propose the specific neuroaffective deficits in processing the emotional experiences as etiology of the borderline personalitydisorder. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Dynamic Deconstructive Psychotherapy to improve the symptoms in patients diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder byremediation of neuro-affective defects. This study was designed as a randomized controlled trial using the pre-test, post-test, and control group. Thirty patients who were diagnosed with borderline personalitydisorder meeting the inclusion criteria randomly divided into two groups. Both groups evaluated using both the Borderline Evaluation of Severity over Time (BEST) and Patient Health Questionnaire Mood Scale (PHQ-9) questionnaires at the baseline and the over course of the treatment. Data analysis using repeated measures ANOVA indicated that the effect of measuring time (p=0.001) and time/group (p=0.010) on linear combination of the severity of borderline disorder and depression were significant. This result supports the efficacy of Dynamic Deconstructive Psychotherapy based on the neurocognitive remediation of emotion processing using association, attribution and alterity techniques.

Emotional Processing In Patients with Ischemic Heart Diseases.

BACKGROUND:Cardiovascular disease is the most prevalent public health problem on a worldwide scale, and ischemic heart disease accounts for approximately one-half of these events in high-income countries. One of the most important risk factors for this disease is mental and psychological especially stressful experiences.AIM:This research was established to compare emotional processing, as a key factor in stress appraisal, between IHD patients and people with no cardiovascular disease.METHODS:Using simple sampling, fifty patients were selected from people who diagnosed as IHD in the hospital and referred for treatment after discharging care and treatment. Control group participants were selected as control group peoples, using neighbourhood controls selection. The Emotional Processing Scale was filled by all members of the two groups.RESULTS:There were significant differences between the two groups on the EPS-25 total scores, as well as on emotional processing dimensions of signs of unprocessed emotion, unregulated emotion; avoidance and impoverished. Also, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the dimension of Suppression. The final step of regression revealed a β of 10.15 and 1.05 for AVO and IEE subscales respectively.CONCLUSION:The result showed that patients with IHD are using more negative emotional processing styles.

F93. Gender Differences in Brain Activation During Implicit Emotional Processing in Patients With Melancholic Depression

Increased susceptibility of women to MDD may relate to differences in neural processing of emotional faces between men and women. Studies of gender differences in depression that include all subtypes may be skewed due to neural differences of subtypes. It is therefore valuable to investigate gender differences in samples that are homogeneous regarding depressive subtype. Gender differences may also be linked to neural dysregulation that occurs in melancholic depression, which is characterized by blunted emotional reactivity and significant anhedonia. The aim of this study was to investigate gender differences in the melancholic subtype as it relates to brain activation during implicit perception of emotional faces.

Facial emotion processing in patients with seizure disorders

Studies of emotion processing are needed to better understand the pathophysiology of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). We examined the differences in facial emotion processing between 12 patients with PNES, 12 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), and 24 matched healthy controls (HCs) using fMRI with emotional faces task (EFT) (happy/sad/fearful/neutral) and resting state connectivity. Compared with TLE, patients with PNES exhibited increased fMRI response to happy, neutral, and fearful faces in visual, temporal, and/or parietal regions and decreased fMRI response to sad faces in the putamen bilaterally. Regions showing significant differences between PNES and TLE were used as functional seed regions of interest (ROIs), in addition to amygdala structural seed ROIs for resting state functional connectivity analyses. Whole brain analyses showed that compared with TLE and HCs, patients with PNES exhibited increased functional connectivity of the functional seed ROIs to several brain regions, particularly to cerebellar, visual, motor, and frontotemporal regions. Connectograms showed increased functional connections between left parahippocampal gyrus/uncus ROIs and right temporal ROIs in PNES compared with both the TLE and HC groups. Resting state functional connectivity of the left and right amygdala to various brain regions including emotion regulation and motor control circuits was increased in PNES when compared with those with TLE. This study provides preliminary evidence that patients with PNES exhibit altered facial emotion processing compared with patients with TLE and HCs and increased amygdala functional connectivity compared with TLE. These findings identify potential key differences in facial emotion processing reflective of neurophysiologic markers of neural circuitry alterations that can be used to generate further hypotheses for developing studies that examine the contributions of emotion processing to the development and maintenance of PNES.

Neural functional correlates of emotional processing in patients with first-episode psychoses: an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis

Early emotional recognition impairment characterises rst-episode psychoses (FEP) and remains stable thereafter. Patients with FEP consistently show brain activation changes during emotional processing in functional neuroimaging studies. To identify and compare cerebral activation correlates of FEP patients and healthy controls (HCs) during emotional task performances, we performed an Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of peer-reviewed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. Five studies included 71 patients with FEP and 75 HCs. Within-group analyses showed that HCs activated during emotional task performance the bilateral inferior parietal lobule (BAs 39 and 40), left inferior frontal gyrus (BAs 9 and 47), right amygdala, left middle frontal gyrus (BA 9), right cingulate gyrus (BA 32), and right middle temporal gyrus (BA 21). FEP activations correlating with emotional tasks included the right cuneus (BA 17) and right angular gyrus (BA 39). During emotional task performance, FEP patients fail to activate an extensive brain network comprising emotional processing-related areas, including both cortical and subcortical areas.

The features of emotional processing in patients with depressive disorders

To study neurocognitive symptoms in depressive disorders with the designation of their brain and psychological mechanisms. Thirty-three patients diagnosed with depression and 33 healthy controls were studied using standardized neuropsychological tests and tests comprising emotiogenic stimuli. A neurocognitive deficit in patients with depression manifested as changes in speed of emotional processing and some cognitive functions. These patients demonstrate decreased attention to negative stimuli combined with decreased attention to positive stimuli. The abnormal processes of 'hot' cognition in patients with depressive disorders conceptualize such a core symptom of depression as anhedonia, which is a probable endophenotype of depression.

Impaired emotion processing in functional (psychogenic) tremor: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

BackgroundDespite its high prevalence and associated disability, the neural correlates of emotion processing in patients with functional (psychogenic) tremor (FT), the most common functional movement disorder, remain poorly understood.MethodsIn this cross sectional functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study at 4T, 27 subjects with FT, 16 with essential tremor (ET), and 25 healthy controls (HCs) underwent a finger-tapping motor task, a basic-emotion task, and an intense-emotion task to probe motor and emotion circuitries. Anatomical and functional MRI data were processed with FSL (FMRIB Software Library) and AFNI (Analysis of Functional Neuroimages), followed by seed-to-seed connectivity analyses using anatomical regions defined from the Harvard-Oxford subcortical atlas; all analyses were corrected for multiple comparisons.ResultsAfter controlling for depression scores and correcting for multiple comparisons, the FT group showed increased activation in the right cerebellum compared to ET during the motor task; and increased activation in the paracingulate gyrus and left Heschl's gyrus compared with HC with decreased activation in the right precentral gyrus compared with ET during the basic-emotion task. No significant differences were found after adjusting for multiple comparisons during the intense-emotion task but increase in connectivity between the left amygdala and left middle frontal gyrus survived corrections in the FT subjects during this task, compared to HC.ConclusionsIn response to emotional stimuli, functional tremor is associated with alterations in activation and functional connectivity in networks involved in emotion processing and theory of mind. These findings may be relevant to the pathophysiology of functional movement disorders.

Interferon-α induces negative biases in emotional processing in patients with hepatitis C virus infection: a preliminary study.

Treatment of medical patients with the inflammatory cytokine, interferon-α (IFN-α), is frequently associated with the development of clinical depressive symptomatology. Several important biological correlates of the effect of IFN-α on mood have been described, but the neuropsychological changes associated with IFN-α treatment are largely unexplored. The aim of the present preliminary study was to assess the effect of IFN-α on measures of emotional processing. We measured changes in emotional processing over 6-8 weeks in 17 patients receiving IFN-α as part of their treatment for hepatitis C virus infection. Emotional processing tasks included those which have previously been shown to be sensitive to the effects of depression and antidepressant treatment, namely facial expression recognition, emotional categorisation and the dot probe attentional task. Following IFN-α, patients were more accurate at detecting facial expressions of disgust; they also showed diminished attentional vigilance to happy faces. IFN-α produced the expected increases in scores on depression rating scales, but there was no correlation between these scores and the changes in emotional processing. Our preliminary findings suggest that IFN-α treatment produces negative biases in emotional processing, and this effect is not simply a consequence of depression. It is possible that increased recognition of disgust may represent a neuropsychological marker of depressive disorders related to inflammation.