Reimagining rumination? The unique role of mental imagery in adolescents? affective and physiological response to rumination and distraction

Rumination is associated with increased risk for depression whereas distraction helps draw attention away from negative experiences, lowering risk. Many individuals who ruminate do so in the form of mental imagery and imagery-based rumination is more highly associated with depressive symptom severity than ruminating in the form of verbal thoughts. We do not yet understand why imagery-based rumination may be especially problematic nor how to intervene to reduce imagery-based rumination, however. Adolescents (N = 145) underwent a negative mood induction followed by experimental induction of rumination or distraction in the form of mental imagery or verbal thought while affective, high-frequency heart rate variability, and skin conductance response data were collected. Rumination was associated with similar affective, high-frequency heart rate variability, and skin conductance response regardless of whether adolescents were induced to ruminate in the form of mental imagery or verbal thought. Distraction led to greater affective improvement and greater increases in high -frequency heart rate variability, but similar skin conductance responses when adolescents were inducted to distract themselves in the form of mental imagery compared with verbal thought. Findings emphasize the importance of considering mental imagery in clinical contexts when assessing rumination and when intervening using distraction.

Automated summary

Rumination is associated with increased risk for depression, while distraction helps lower the risk by drawing attention away from negative experiences. Mental imagery-based rumination is more strongly associated with depressive symptoms than verbal thoughts-based rumination. The reasons for the problematic nature of imagery-based rumination and how to intervene to reduce it remain unclear.