Analysis: Our fluctuating moods and mental health play a major role in shaping our confidence, how we perceive time and how effectively we learn
Have you ever second-guessed yourself out of a great opportunity, lost track of time before an important meeting or struggled to absorb new information at work? These experiences aren't random and are closely linked to our mood and mental health, and are especially pronounced in those with clinically diagnosed conditions.
Whether it's depression fuelling persistent self-doubt and uncertainty, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) making time feel elusive, or certain mental health conditions affecting how we process and integrate new information, these experiences can have significant consequences that shape our daily lives.
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My research explores how everyday fluctuations in mood and symptoms, particularly those associated with depression, ADHD, and psychosis, impact important cognitive processes such as our confidence, perceptions of time and how we learn from our experiences. Let’s break these down to understand why they matter.
Are you confident in your abilities?
Feeling low isn’t just emotionally draining, but significantly impacts how you perceive and evaluate your abilities. Research indicates that people with depression often underestimate their performance, even when they perform just as well as those without depression. This persistent under confidence, known as negative metacognitive confidence bias, can make every day decision-making stressful and exhausting, even when objectively correct decisions are made.
But the origins of these negative beliefs remain unclear. Does low self-esteem lead to poor confidence in daily tasks, or do repeated experiences of self-doubt in day-to-day decisions gradually erode self-belief? Identifying the causal direction underlying this experience, as well as the specific depressive symptoms that contribute most to this pattern could guide interventions aimed at improving decision-making confidence and overall self-esteem.
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How we view time
Our mood and mental health symptoms also influence how we experience time. Imagine that your brain has an internal clock, but it uses pulses similar to your heartbeat instead of mechanical gears to keep track of time. This is a concept described by the Scalar Expectancy Theory. However, factors like our attention and mood influence this internal process, making time feel slower or faster depending on the situation. For example, boredom can make time drag, while engaging activities make it fly by.
Despite the difference in symptoms, individuals diagnosed with ADHD or schizophrenia often experience extreme disruptions in time perception. Hours may feel like minutes, or days can blur together. These distortions severely impair their ability to navigate their day-to-day life, causing significant distress. Understanding these disruptions could help researchers develop more targeted interventions to support individuals dealing with these challenges.
How we take in new information
Your mental health also shapes how you learn and integrate new information. Imagine you are trying to recreate a cake you had without a recipe. Initially, you would rely on prior knowledge and assumptions (eg using eggs, flour and sugar). After baking your first batch, you might notice that it's too sweet compared to your expectations so you use that feedback to adjust your baking and reduce the quantity of sugar.
Feeling low isn't just emotionally draining, but significantly impacts how you perceive and evaluate your abilities
By repeating this process, you would continually refine the cake until it matches your expectations. This trial-and-error process reflects the predictive coding framework, which suggests that our brains constantly learn and update beliefs based on feedback from new experiences.
However, recent studies suggest that this adaptive learning process can become disrupted in conditions like schizophrenia, causing significant impairment. For example, research has linked the development and severity of delusions and hallucinations with aberrant learning and belief updating processes.
Nonetheless, the specific mechanisms underlying the presentation of these symptoms, and their unique phenomenological experience (i.e. types of hallucination and delusions) remains unclear. Insights into these mechanisms could help clinicians target specific steps in the belief updating process to alleviate symptom severity.
Ecological momentary assessments
To address the limitations of current approaches, our research employs smartphone-based ecological momentary assessments (EMA) with a focus on both clinical and general populations. This is a powerful tool that allows participants to regularly complete short questionnaires on mood and symptoms, alongside tasks assessing confidence, time perception and learning throughout the day. Such real-time tracking provides a dynamic and detailed view of how mood and symptoms fluctuate and impact cognitive performance between and within individuals.
The practical implications of this extend far beyond research. Participants can use the data to self-monitor their mental health, gaining valuable insights into their daily experiences and patterns. Healthcare providers can leverage this real-time symptom tracking to tailor interventions more precisely, ensuring that individuals receive timely and personalized support. At a broader level, the insights gained from this research have the potential to revolutionise mental health care by making resources more accessible and personalised.
Imagine a future where mental health support is not only timely but also tailored to the unique needs of each individual, enhancing overall well-being and quality of life. This innovative approach could open up new avenues for mental health resources, advancing personalized and timely healthcare, and ensuring individuals get the right support at the right time.
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Paveen Phon-Amnuaisuk is a FutureNeuro PhD candidate at TCD specialising in diagnostics and digital health for mental health and psychosis. He is a Research Ireland awardee
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
