Journal of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Medical Science) >

2025 , Vol. 45 >Issue 10: 1378 - 1382

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1674-8115.2025.10.013

Review

Progress of impaired memory suppression in patients with depressive disorders

  • GENG Menglu ,
  • LI Chunbo
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  • 1.Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China
    2.Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorder; School of Psychology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; National Research Centre for Language and Well-Being, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
LI Chunbo, E-mail: licb@smhc.org.cn.

Received date: 2025-01-07

  Accepted date: 2025-06-06

  Online published: 2025-10-28

Supported by

National Key R&D Program of China(2024YFC3606800);Program of Clinical Research Center of Shanghai Mental Health Center(19MC1911100)

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Abstract

The intentional suppression of memory retrieval to achieve directed forgetting is a crucial adaptive function for individuals. In psychotherapy theory, such active forgetting is often associated with trauma, where in individuals actively exclude trauma-related negative memories from awareness to reduce unpleasant emotional experiences. Based on the "go/no-go" task paradigm, researchers developed the "think/no-think" (TNT) paradigm, and through this paradigm, they have revealed that individuals can achieve active forgetting by suppressing the retrieval of previously encoded memories. Patients with depressive disorders often exhibit cognitive processing biases toward negative information. Compared to healthy populations, they demonstrate impaired memory retrieval suppression in TNT tasks, especially for negative memories. This deficit in retrieval suppression makes negative memories more susceptible to reactivation, triggering negative emotions and perpetuating a vicious cycle. Relevant neuroimaging results show that during memory retrieval suppression, the lateral prefrontal lobe exerts top-down control through relevant regions to modulate memory processing of hippocampus, thereby blocking intentional recall. Abnormalities in the prefrontal-hippocampal inhibitory pathway and hyperactivation of the amygdala in depressed individuals may be the underlying neural mechanisms for their impaired suppression of negative memory retrieval.This article provides a review focusing on the negative memory bias exhibited in depressed individuals in the TNT task and the exploration of its underlying mechanisms. It summarizes relevant research findings with the aim of offering references for the development of precise psychotherapies and novel approaches targeting the improvement of specific symptom clusters.

Key words： depressive disorder; memory retrieval suppression; negative memory bias

Cite this article

GENG Menglu , LI Chunbo . Progress of impaired memory suppression in patients with depressive disorders[J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Medical Science), 2025 , 45(10) : 1378 -1382 . DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8115.2025.10.013

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