Advancing the neuroelectrophysiological understanding of attentional switching dysfunction in major depressive disorder

Table 1 Summary of evidence for emotional interference in attentional switching in major depressive disorder

Aspect of interference	Behavioral evidence	ERP/neurophysiological evidence	Theoretical interpretation
Engagement/attention capture by negative stimuli	Slower response times on trials following negative stimuli; difficulty ignoring negative distractors	Enhanced early components (P1, N170) and/or reduced P200 to negative vs neutral/positive stimuli	Hyper-vigilance or facilitated early orientation towards threat/mood-congruent information
Disengagement difficulty from negative stimuli	Increased response time cost when shifting attention away from a negative cue/location	Prolonged late positivity (LPP) or sustained frontal negativity for negative stimuli; reduced P300 for subsequent targets	Impaired top-down control to terminate processing of negative information, leading to “sticky” attention
Impaired switching in negative context	Poorer accuracy and slower switching specifically when negative material is involved	Reduced P300 and LPP amplitudes on switch trials with emotional vs. neutral stimuli; altered fronto-central theta synchronization	Negative emotion consumes/degrades executive resources needed for set-shifting and task reconfiguration
Blunted processing of positive stimuli	Reduced facilitation from positive cues; diminished reward learning	Attenuated LPP and RewP to positive/rewarding stimuli	Anhedonia and reduced motivational salience of positive information, failing to provide a protective or facilitative effect on switching

ERP: Event-related potential; LPP: Late positive potential; RewP: Reward positivity.