Memory impairments in depression

Abstract

Depression is characterized by persistent depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure in previously enjoyable activities, recurrent thoughts of death, and physical and cognitive symptoms. Godlewska and Harmer’s cognitive neuropsychological theory posits that cognitive dysfunction constitutes a core pathophysiological feature of depression, manifested through negative cognitive bias, memory impairment, and executive dysfunction. Prior studies showed that depression impairs memory, correlating with the severity of depressive symptoms. The hippocampus and cortex critically mediate memory encoding, retrieval, activation, and consolidation. Neurally, depression involves reduced hippocampal activation, prefrontal executive control dysfunction, hypoactivity in emotion-regulating regions, diminished cingulate gyrus activity and connectivity, and amygdala abnormalities. Memory impairment is linked not only to depression but also to systemic inflammation from physical diseases, which may disrupt central nervous system function and contribute to cognitive deficits. To elucidate memory impairment mechanisms in depression and guide precision therapies for cognitive rehabilitation, in this review, we introduce the psychological model and measurement tasks of memory and discuss different types of memory impairment in depression.

Keywords

Memory / Impairment / Depression / Somatic diseases / Hippocampus

Acknowledgments

None.

Funding

This work was financially supported by Wuxi Municipal Health Commission Major Project (No. Z202107) and Wuxi Taihu Talent Project (No. WXTTP 2021).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Hongliang Zhou

Writing - original draft: Yaqing Wang

Writing - review & editing: Tiantian Wang, Hui Deng

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data

Not applicable.

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