I’m pretty sure it does. It makes me not able to access many of my memories and the information I have stored. What is the science behind it? I just came out of a two year long depression so I figure I will understand the answer if someone explains it. Oh and also … when I’m depressed even this sub is sadly too way hard for me to comprehend. Thank you.
In: Biology
IQ is very efficient at determining how good someone is at IQ testing. Everything else is a bit dubious.
proficiency at any task is going to be hindered by some stuff, hunger, sleep deprivation…especially depression.
The chemical reward systems in your brain in many cases are switched off. Nothing feels good…that satisfying click when something works just isn’t there.
Those chemical rewards, dopamine , serotonin etc…sometimes serve as a motivator.
Without them you might look at something and subconsciously think “who gives a fuck?”
Psychology is a dubious science at best but we can say that people reporting symptoms of clinical depression show both less overall electrical activity in their brains and disproportionately high activity in the regions of the brains more devoted to emotional response than in the so-called “logic centers”. This may tend to fall in line with your subjective perception of the phenomenon you describe.
Some good news is that it also may be possible to experience some relief from depression by actively focusing your energies on logical and rational exercises. Many people who suffer from depression are avid gamers – unfortunately the big gaming companies seem to be well aware of that and offer games that string along constant mental states rather than challenge the players to rise above them.
So there is a part of your brain that directs attention. It receives signals from memory-parts and emotional parts. In depressed people, these parts dont talk together as well, making it more difficult to process information.
IQ is based on how your score fits compared to everyone else who took the test. Depression can make you take longer to come up with right answers and to miss some answers you could have gotten right if you weren’t depressed, giving you a lower score. A lower score means you didn’t do as well compared to everyone else, so you get scored with a lower IQ.
It’s math. The population is roughly 60/40 women to men, but women are twice as likely to experience depression. Now consider that men have higher IQ on average.
People with depression drop in IQ because women make up a bigger portion of that sample size.
[https://nhahealth.com/how-depression-impacts-executive-function/#](https://nhahealth.com/how-depression-impacts-executive-function/#)
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772598723000193](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772598723000193)
[https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1225062/full](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1225062/full)
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15853477/#](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15853477/#)
Depression lowers working memory, lowers executive function, lowers cognitive speed, lowers motivation, etc. These all translate into becoming less intelligent.
Depression decreases processing speed. Processing speed is one of determining factors of IQ. Assuming all other things remain the same, a drop in processing speed will cause someone to score lower on an IQ test.
For ELI5: Depression generally makes people less motivated to put effort into completing tasks. IQ tests and critical thinking take that same kind of effort.
Therefore, depressed people are less likely to put a high amount of cognitive effort into finding answers on any IQ test and more likely to test lower.
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