Memory bias in depression: effects of self-reference and age

Abstract

Positive biases in memory serve as cognitive mechanisms of emotional regulation. It has been debated whether this ability is impaired in depression only for self-referent contents. The current study investigated the role of self-reference and age in memory bias in depression, in clinically depressed individuals (n = 41) and healthy controls (n = 39), aged 22-80 years. Participants completed recall and recognition tasks of experimentally presented positive, negative, and neutral non-self-referent images, and retrieved and rated a self-generated selection of autobiographical memories. The results suggested that depressed patients, relative to healthy controls, retrieved fewer positive self-referent memories. Importantly, depressed patients were positively biased when recalling non-self-referent memories. The positivity of biases decreased with age for self-referent and increased with age for non-self-referent memory contents in both groups. The overall results suggested that mood-regulating mechanisms can be preserved in depression and that emotional regulation is disrupted for self-referent content in depression. Moreover, older age can enhance these trends. We discuss the implications of these findings for treatment strategies in depression and old age.