A comparison of the matching of emotional information by depressive and organic patients

Abstract The ability to match complex emotional stimuli was assessed in depressed and organic neuropsychiatric patients. Subjects were 13 nonorganic-depressed, 13 organic-depressed, 10 organic-nondepressed, and 10 nonorganic-nondepressed right-handed adults. They were required to match pictures, sentences, and faces on the basis of emotional content in order to determine whether depression resulted in difficulties in analyzing emotional information consistent with those seen in organic patients. Depression produced an error pattern for the matching of complex emotional information that was suggestive of right hemisphere dysfunction. It was unclear if this was due to emotional processing defects or a more generalized deficit in conceptual processes.