A Functional Cerebral Systems Approach to Depression: Contributions of the Left and Right Frontal Lobes

Abstract

Abstract In the majority of the depression literature, there has been little attention paid to the mechanisms underlying the differences that occur among individuals with this label. In a theoretical paper by Shenal, Harrison, and Demaree (2003), they proposed that the differences in depression symptomology may be due to differences in the function (and dysfunction) of the right and left frontal lobes. They go on to explain that each frontal lobe may have a direct influence on patterns of depression symptomology. In the current experiment there was an effort to look at performance differences among depressed and non-depressed males on a tests of affective memory (AAVLT) and functioning for the left (COWAT) and right (RFFT) frontal lobes. Results were non-significant for group based differences but other significant effects were found. Reliable findings included a primacy effect for the recall of words from the negative word list from the AAVLT, whereas t a â normalâ primacy and recency effects were found for the recall of positive and neutral word lists. There were also significant differences (across trials) for both groups suggesting a â normalâ learning curve. It is thought that the non-significant comparisons among the groups are likely due to the qualitatively mild depression scores among participants, which is likely not adequate to capture the level of dysfunction discussed in the original hypothesis.