SEMANTIC PRIMING IN MAJOR DEPRESSIVE STATE

We studied semantic priming in 20 major depressive subjects. The metho dology used was a visual lexical decision task. Semantic priming is th e facilitation of target word recognition (shortening of response time ) by the prior presentation of a semantically related context (a prime word). It relies on semantic processing of words and context, facilit ating early cognitive stages of response. Varying the temporal interva l between prime and target words onset allows us to distinguish betwee n two priming mechanisms, relying on more automatic (test 1) or more c ontrolled (i.e. attention dependent) (test 2) information processing. We observe a significant retardation for words and pseudo-words in dep ressives (in relation to controls) in both tests. In spite of a genera l retardation and increase of response times in depressives, semantic priming is evident in both groups and both tests, and does not differ significantly between depressive and control groups in either automati c or controlled conditions. Theses results confirm that semantic proce ssing is not impaired in depression, and are discussed with regard to the hypothesis of an effortful processing impairment in depression, an d to depressive retardation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.