Depression Blurs Memory: Severity Determines Lost Thoughts

A new Brigham Young University study looked at how depression can harm cognitive processes that involve various memories. Findings showed that the same skills fade in adults depending on the severity of their depression. For instance, the more depressed someone feels, the harder it may be for them to distinguish similar experiences they've had.

"That's really the novel aspect of this study - that we are looking at a very specific aspect of memory," said Brock Kirwan, a psychology and neuroscience professor at BYU.

The study authors note that depression tends to be generally linked to poor memory over long periods of time. To find out why, Kirwan and his former grad student D. J. Shelton put people through a computer-aided memory test in which they viewed a series of objects on a screen. Each respondent showed whether they had seen the object before on the test, seen something similar to it or not seen anything like it.

With old and new items, participants with depression did just fine. They often got it wrong, however, when looking at objects that were similar to something they had previously seen.

 "They don't have amnesia," Kirwan said. "They are just missing the details."

This can be particularly challenging due to a number of everyday situations, such as trying to remember which friends and family members you've talked about something personal with.

The study authors hope this gives more in-depth information regarding important clues about what's happening in the brain.

More information regarding the study can be found via Behavioral Brain Research.