The outbreak of COVID-19 altered the relationship between current negative memory biases and future depressive degree in nonclinical depression.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has increased concern about people's mental health under such serious stressful situation, especially depressive symptoms. Cognitive biases have been related to depression degree in previous studies. Here, we used behavioral and brain imaging analysis, to determine if and how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the relationship between current cognitive biases and future depression degree and the underlying neural basis in a nonclinical depressed population. An out-expectation result showed that a more negative memory bias was associated with a greater decrease in future depressive indices in nonclinical depressed participants during the COVID-19 pandemic, which might be due to decreased social stress. These data enhance our understanding of how the depressive degree of nonclinical depressed populations will change during the COVID-19 pandemic and also provide support for social distancing policies from a psychological perspective.