Originally Published 4 months ago — by Hacker News
Repetitive negative thinking is linked to cognitive decline in older adults, but it's unclear whether it causes decline or is a symptom. The article discusses the complexity of thoughts, mental health, and aging, emphasizing that controlling negative thoughts is challenging but possible through therapy and philosophical approaches like stoicism. It also highlights the importance of community support and the need for further research to understand causation.
A study published in Acta Psychologica has found a link between persistent negative self-referent thinking and current depressive symptoms in adolescents, but not necessarily future symptoms. The research, conducted by Eline Belmans and team at KU Leuven Research University, used an Emotional Reversal Learning Task to measure participants' adaptation to changing reward conditions and found that those who persistently engaged in negative self-referent thinking had higher levels of depressive symptoms. However, this thinking pattern was not a significant predictor of future symptoms. The study sheds light on depressive cognition in adolescents and suggests potential avenues for preventive strategies in adolescent mental health, but has limitations in terms of self-reporting and the short follow-up period.
A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders has found that patterns of brain activity during negative thinking can predict the tendency for rumination in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). The research utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to examine brain connectivity patterns during resting and induced negative thinking states. The study revealed that brain activity during negative thinking was distinct from resting-state activity and could predict trait rumination in individuals with MDD. The findings suggest that understanding brain activity during rumination is crucial for predicting depressive symptoms and may inform interventions targeting repetitive negative thinking in depression.
