Individual differences in Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (ANPS) primary emotional traits and depressive tendencies

Background: The present study investigated individual differences in the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS), representing measures of primary emotional systems, and depressive tendencies in two independent samples. Methods: In order to be able to find support for a continuum model with respect to the relation of strength in the cross-species "affective neuroscience" taxonomy of primary emotional systems, we investigated ANPS measured personality traits in a psychologically mostly healthy population (n = 614 participants) as well as a sample of clinically depressed people (n = 55 depressed patients). Results: In both normal and depressed samples robust associations appeared between higher FEAR and SADNESS scores and depressive tendencies. A similar albeit weaker association was observed with lower SEEKING system scores and higher depressive tendencies, an effect again seen in both samples. Limitations: The study is of cross-sectional nature and therefore only associations between primary emotional systems and depressive tendencies were evaluated. Conclusions: These results show that similar associations between ANPS monitored primary emotional systems and tendencies toward depression can be observed in both healthy and depressed participants. This lends support for a continuum of affective changes accompanying depression, potentially reflecting differences in specific brain emotional system activities in both affectively normal as well as clinically depressed individuals. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.