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Chapter 30 - Emotion and Affective Disorders

from Section VII - Individual Differences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2025

Jorge Armony
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Patrik Vuilleumier
Affiliation:
University of Geneva
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Summary

Psychiatric disorders are highly comorbid and are not separated by sharp biological boundaries. Understanding the common mechanisms that explain symptom overlap in mental disorders is therefore clearly needed. Here, we briefly review impaired emotional processing and emotional dysregulation in affective disorders, with a special focus on unipolar depression. Affective disorders are characterized by abnormal emotion intensity, changes in the temporal dynamics of emotion and difficulties to influence the trajectory of emotions. Disruptions in emotion processing and emotional regulation are underlined at the neural level by abnormal interactions between cortical and limbic structures in terms of increased variance in functional connectivity. Emotional processes are also tightly linked to cognitive processes, which constitute main targets for therapeutic interventions in affective disorders.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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