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World J Psychiatry. Mar 19, 2026; 16(3): 114153
Published online Mar 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i3.114153
Published online Mar 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i3.114153
Emotion-cognition dysregulation in major depression: Multidimensional biases, neural circuit imbalance, and translational opportunities
Yi Gu, Yi-Xu Wang, Wen-Juan Xia, Jun Wang, Department of Psychiatry, Wuxi Mental Health Center (Affiliated Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University), Wuxi 214151, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Yi Gu collected and organized the literature, drafted and revised the manuscript; Yi-Xu Wang and Wen-Juan Xia assisted with literature collection and manuscript revision; Jun Wang designed and supervised the study, provided academic guidance and financial support, and critically edited the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Corresponding author: Jun Wang, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Wuxi Mental Health Center (Affiliated Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University), No. 156 Qianrong Road, Binhu District, Wuxi 214151, Jiangsu Province, China.
Received: September 16, 2025
Revised: October 29, 2025
Accepted: December 9, 2025
Published online: March 19, 2026
Processing time: 165 Days and 21.4 Hours
Revised: October 29, 2025
Accepted: December 9, 2025
Published online: March 19, 2026
Processing time: 165 Days and 21.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This review reframes major depression as an emotion–cognition dysregulation syndrome characterized by a limbic-prefrontal imbalance and large-scale network disruption. By integrating behavioral signatures (negative attention/memory bias, impaired reappraisal) with neural markers (amygdala/insula hyperreactivity, weakened prefrontal control, default mode network-frontoparietal control network/salience network dyscoupling), it outlines composite biomarkers for diagnosis, stratified risk prediction, and mechanism-guided therapies (e.g., imaging-informed neuromodulation). The field now needs standardized tasks and longitudinal multimodal designs to operationalize precision psychiatry.