Neural correlates of generation and inhibition of verbal association patterns in mood disorders.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Thought disorders such as rumination or flight of ideas are frequent in patients with mood disorders, and not systematically linked to mood state. These symptoms point to anomalies in cognitive processes mediating the generation and control of thoughts; for example, associative thinking and inhibition. However, their neural substrates are not known.

Method

To obtain an ecological measure of neural processes underlying the generation and suppression of spontaneous thoughts, we designed a free word association task during fMRI allowing us to explore verbal associative patterns in patients with mood disorders and matched controls. Participants were presented with emotionally negative, positive or neutral words, and asked to produce two words either related or unrelat

SUBMITTER: Piguet C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4483568 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature