Dysphoria and Eyewitness Identification

Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to attribute mental states (e.g., beliefs, desires) to others in order to understand and predict their social behavior. Decoding others’ mental states based on immediately perceptible social information (e.g., facial expressions) forms the foundation of this ability and is significantly impaired in individuals with depression. Interestingly, those who possess various risk factors, such as sub-threshold symptoms or a past or maternal history, but who are not currently depressed, show enhanced ToM decoding accuracy. Although having a mother with depression is one of the most powerful risk factors for adulthood depression, the mechanisms by which it might result in superior ToM have not been examined. Additionally, the relation between a genetic risk factor, the serotonin transporter-linked polymorphic region, to ToM, has not yet been studied. I will be the first to examine this relation as well as its role as a moderator in the relation of maternal depressive history to superior ToM, using a cross-sectional design and an archival sample of depressed and non-depressed young adults. I hypothesize that both maternal depressive history and possession of at least one s-allele will be associated with enhanced ToM ability, as well as an interaction whereby individuals with both a maternal history and at least one s-allele outperform those with a maternal history but who are l-allele homozygous. Since superior ToM decoding is associated with social dysfunction, the results may contribute to the identification of at-risk individuals and have implications for the prevention and treatment of depression.