Regret and the negative evaluation of decision outcomes in major depression

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2010 Sep;10(3):406-13. doi: 10.3758/CABN.10.3.406.

Abstract

Disruption of normal emotional experience is central to the phenomenology of depression. Twenty-three depressed outpatients and 23 control subjects performed a computerized decision-making task, during which affective ratings were assessed online to identify various dimensions of emotional experience. We sought to contrast regret (the comparison of the outcomes of selected and nonselected options) with the general negative appraisal of task events. The experience of regret was reduced in depressed patients, an effect that was particularly related to self-reported apathy scores. In an exploratory analysis, we observed that females had a general downward shift in their ratings, as compared with males, but disappointment and regret effects were of similar magnitude. The possible contribution of the orbitofrontal cortex to the phenomenology of regret is discussed. Supplemental materials for this article may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Affect*
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Apathy*
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Decision Making*
  • Depressive Disorder / psychology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Matched-Pair Analysis
  • Pilot Projects
  • Reference Values
  • Reinforcement, Psychology*
  • Self-Assessment
  • Set, Psychology
  • Sex Factors