Imagery vividness and perceptual clarity: affective visual processing in relation to depression and anxiety

Abstract

The influence of visual mental imagery on emotion processing is well-established, and its vividness has further been shown to vary by valence and diagnostic groups. While both depression and anxiety are associated with dysfunctions in affective processing of visual imagery and visual percepts separately, a direct comparison of internal and external visual processing has not yet been undertaken. Moreover, while individual differences in imagery vividness have been observed in isolated psychopathologies, the manner in which these differences manifest in comorbid depression and anxiety is uncertain. The current study examined features of internal and external affective visual processing in relation to depression, anxiety, and their comorbidity, through an emotion appraisal task. In separate experimental blocks, participants were presented with trials of affective pictures and imagery cues and were subsequently asked to rate the emotional valence and clarity/vividness of each stimulus. Ratings were compared to participants’ scores on self-report measures of depression and anxiety. Further analyses assessed the utility of continuous (dimensional) versus categorical (multidimensional) models of psychopathology. Results revealed depression scores alone to be associated with reduced vividness ratings for positive (but not negative or neutral) imagery. Further, depression was related to more negative appraisals of valenced imagery but not pictures, and reduced clarity ratings for valenced pictures but not neutral pictures. Results also support the utility of dimensional models of psychopathology, with limited evidence to support strong categorization of psychopathological features. Findings are discussed in relation to attention and reward processing, as well as cognitive and neural resource engagement.