Computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory in major depressive disorder and sex differences
Abstract This study examined the computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory (VWM) in MDD, focusing on memory precision while exploring potential sex differences. 159 Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) patients and 67 healthy controls (HC) completed the color delay estimation task to me...
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BMC
2025-04-01
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| Series: | BMC Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-025-02662-8 |
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| author | Qingzu Kong Qian Liu Feng Gao Xiang Wang Zhiyan Wang Chuman Xiao Xinyue Zhang Qianmei Yu Jie Fan Xiongzhao Zhu |
| author_facet | Qingzu Kong Qian Liu Feng Gao Xiang Wang Zhiyan Wang Chuman Xiao Xinyue Zhang Qianmei Yu Jie Fan Xiongzhao Zhu |
| author_sort | Qingzu Kong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract This study examined the computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory (VWM) in MDD, focusing on memory precision while exploring potential sex differences. 159 Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) patients and 67 healthy controls (HC) completed the color delay estimation task to measure their VWM. The mainstream models of VWM were compared, and the variable-precision (VP) model was the best fit for our data. The Bayesian ANCOVA was used to compare the differences between groups (MDD & HC) and sexes (male & female). Results revealed that MDD had worse memory precision than HC (BF 10 = 103.872, decisive evidence for H1). Specifically, they had larger resource allocation variability (BF 10 = 19.421, strong evidence for H1), indicating that they distributed memory resources more unevenly across different items than HC. In addition, females had better memory precision than males (BF 10 = 10.548, strong evidence for H1). More specifically, they had more initial resources during the color delay estimation task (BF 10 = 6.003, substantial evidence for H1) than males. These findings highlight the critical role of diminished precision, specifically, larger resource allocation variability, in impaired VWM in MDD. Meanwhile, these findings highlight sex differences in memory precision and initial resources of VWM. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-76225ae0d2c144a48676e35a0d989ae5 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2050-7283 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Psychology |
| spelling | doaj-art-76225ae0d2c144a48676e35a0d989ae52025-08-20T03:08:12ZengBMCBMC Psychology2050-72832025-04-0113111110.1186/s40359-025-02662-8Computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory in major depressive disorder and sex differencesQingzu Kong0Qian Liu1Feng Gao2Xiang Wang3Zhiyan Wang4Chuman Xiao5Xinyue Zhang6Qianmei Yu7Jie Fan8Xiongzhao Zhu9Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityMedical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityMedical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityMedical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityMedical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityMedical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityMedical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityMedical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityMedical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityMedical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityAbstract This study examined the computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory (VWM) in MDD, focusing on memory precision while exploring potential sex differences. 159 Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) patients and 67 healthy controls (HC) completed the color delay estimation task to measure their VWM. The mainstream models of VWM were compared, and the variable-precision (VP) model was the best fit for our data. The Bayesian ANCOVA was used to compare the differences between groups (MDD & HC) and sexes (male & female). Results revealed that MDD had worse memory precision than HC (BF 10 = 103.872, decisive evidence for H1). Specifically, they had larger resource allocation variability (BF 10 = 19.421, strong evidence for H1), indicating that they distributed memory resources more unevenly across different items than HC. In addition, females had better memory precision than males (BF 10 = 10.548, strong evidence for H1). More specifically, they had more initial resources during the color delay estimation task (BF 10 = 6.003, substantial evidence for H1) than males. These findings highlight the critical role of diminished precision, specifically, larger resource allocation variability, in impaired VWM in MDD. Meanwhile, these findings highlight sex differences in memory precision and initial resources of VWM.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-025-02662-8Visual working memoryMDDCognitive mechanismComputational modelingSex differences |
| spellingShingle | Qingzu Kong Qian Liu Feng Gao Xiang Wang Zhiyan Wang Chuman Xiao Xinyue Zhang Qianmei Yu Jie Fan Xiongzhao Zhu Computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory in major depressive disorder and sex differences BMC Psychology Visual working memory MDD Cognitive mechanism Computational modeling Sex differences |
| title | Computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory in major depressive disorder and sex differences |
| title_full | Computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory in major depressive disorder and sex differences |
| title_fullStr | Computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory in major depressive disorder and sex differences |
| title_full_unstemmed | Computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory in major depressive disorder and sex differences |
| title_short | Computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory in major depressive disorder and sex differences |
| title_sort | computational cognitive mechanisms of visual working memory in major depressive disorder and sex differences |
| topic | Visual working memory MDD Cognitive mechanism Computational modeling Sex differences |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-025-02662-8 |
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