Tea at Trianon: Depression Decreases Cognitive Control

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Depression Decreases Cognitive Control

From PsyPost:

A common symptom of depression is difficulty thinking or concentrating. To rephrase, depressed people often lack the cognitive control required to achieve goals. Researchers at the University of Padua, Italy, sought to determine if the lack of cognitive control in depressed people was present when working on tasks that triggered emotions or if it was present even when tasks were emotionally neutral. Additionally, they were interested in what kinds of tasks resulted in less cognitive control.

Their findings indicate that depression results in difficulties in cognitive control in both emotional and neutral tasks. However, when tasks were emotional, subjects experienced a greater struggle with cognitive control than in neutral tasks. In this condition, managing attention became the primary challenge. Finally, repeated tasks were also challenging for subjects. (Read more.)