经济选择和心率分形标度表明，抑郁会降低认知努力，而悲伤情绪会提高认知努力。
Economic Choice and Heart Rate Fractal Scaling Indicate That Cognitive Effort Is Reduced by Depression and Boosted by Sad Mood.
机构信息
Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.
出版信息
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2023 Jul;8(7):687-694. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.07.008. Epub 2022 Aug 7.
BACKGROUND
People with depression typically exhibit diminished cognitive control. Control is subjectively costly, prompting speculation that control deficits reflect reduced cognitive effort. Evidence that people with depression exert less cognitive effort is mixed, however, and motivation may depend on state affect.
METHODS
We used a cognitive effort discounting task to measure propensity to expend cognitive effort and fractal structure in the temporal dynamics of interbeat intervals to assess on-task effort exertion for 49 healthy control subjects, 36 people with current depression, and 67 people with remitted depression.
RESULTS
People with depression discounted more steeply, indicating that they were less willing to exert cognitive effort than people with remitted depression and never-depressed control subjects. Also, steeper discounting predicted worse functioning in daily life. Surprisingly, a sad mood induction selectively boosted motivation among participants with depression, erasing differences between them and control subjects. During task performance, depressed participants with the lowest cognitive motivation showed blunted autonomic reactivity as a function of load.
CONCLUSIONS
Discounting patterns supported the hypothesis that people with current depression would be less willing to exert cognitive effort, and steeper discounting predicted lower global functioning in daily life. Heart rate fractal scaling proved to be a highly sensitive index of cognitive load, and data implied that people with lower motivation for cognitive effort had a diminished physiological capacity to respond to rising cognitive demands. State affect appeared to influence motivation among people with current depression given that they were more willing to exert cognitive effort following a sad mood induction.
背景
抑郁症患者通常表现出认知控制能力下降。控制是主观上有代价的，这促使人们猜测，控制缺陷反映了认知努力的减少。然而，抑郁症患者的认知努力减少的证据是混杂的，而且动机可能取决于状态情绪。
方法
我们使用认知努力折扣任务来衡量花费认知努力的倾向，以及心率间隔时间动态中的分形结构，以评估 49 名健康对照组、36 名当前抑郁症患者和 67 名缓解期抑郁症患者的任务努力程度。
结果
抑郁症患者的折扣幅度更大，这表明他们比缓解期抑郁症患者和从未患过抑郁症的对照组受试者更不愿意付出认知努力。此外，更大的折扣预示着日常生活中功能更差。令人惊讶的是，悲伤情绪的诱导选择性地提高了抑郁症患者的动机，消除了他们与对照组受试者之间的差异。在任务表现期间，抑郁程度最低的认知动机参与者的自主反应随着负荷的增加而减弱。
结论
折扣模式支持这样的假设，即当前患有抑郁症的人会不太愿意付出认知努力，而且更大的折扣预示着日常生活中的整体功能更差。心率分形标度被证明是一个非常敏感的认知负荷指标，数据表明，那些对认知努力的动机较低的人，对不断增加的认知需求的生理反应能力会降低。鉴于当前患有抑郁症的人在悲伤情绪诱导后更愿意付出认知努力，因此状态情绪似乎会影响他们的动机。
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