Depression symptoms and cognitive control of emotion cues: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2010.01.047

Neuroscience

Volume 167, Issue 1, 28 April 2010, Pages 97-103

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2010.01.047 Get rights and content

Abstract

Few studies have examined associations between depressive symptoms and alterations in neural systems that subserve cognitive control. Cognitive control was assessed with an exogenous cueing task using happy, sad, and neutral facial expressions as cues among women with mild to moderate symptoms of depression and a non-depressed control group while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measured brain activity. Amygdala and medial/orbital prefrontal cortex (PFC) response to valid emotion cues did not differ as a function of depression symptoms. However, significant depression group differences were observed when task demands required cognitive control. Participants with elevated depression symptoms showed weaker activation in right and left lateral PFC and parietal regions when shifting attentional focus away from invalid emotion cues. No depression group differences were observed for invalid non-emotional cues. Findings suggest that mild to moderate depression symptoms are associated with altered function in brain regions that mediate cognitive control of emotional information.

Section snippets

Participants

Thirty-two women participated in the current study. They were recruited primarily through advertisements placed online, in newspapers, and at local community centers. The study was described as an investigation of emotional information processing and brain activity. Depression was not mentioned in advertisements. The average age of participants ranged from 18 to 28 (mean=21.8). The race/ethnicity of the participants were 59% White, 18% Hispanic, 12% Black, and 11% Other/multiple races. All

Behavioral results

We conducted a 3 (stimuli valence: sad, happy, neutral)×2 (cue validity: valid, invalid)×2 (depression group: LD, HD) repeated measures analysis of variance with reaction time to identify probe location as the dependent variable. There was a significant main effect of cue validity, F(1,25)=8.26, P=.01, partial η²=.25. There was a trend towards the moderation of this cue validity effect by stimuli valence, F(2,50)=2.65, P=.09, partial η²=.10. Post-hoc testing indicated that the interaction was

Discussion

This study examined behavioral and neural effects of mild to moderate depressive symptoms on cognitive control of emotion stimuli. Depressive symptoms did not alter behavioral responses to emotion cues. However, differential brain activation was observed between depression groups in a number of regions during trials that required cognitive control over emotion stimuli. For instance, vlPFC activation was lower for valid cues relative to invalid cues, presumably because cognitive control is not

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that depressive symptoms are associated with impaired engagement of lateral PFC and parietal brain regions during cognitive control of emotional information. However, these findings should be considered preliminary, as additional research with larger samples of men and women are needed to confirm the present results. Further, we did not assess menstrual cycle phase and we performed a number of statistical tests in a relatively small sample. Nevertheless, this study

Acknowledgments

Preparation of this article was facilitated by funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH076897) to Christopher Beevers and Army grant #W911NF-07-2-0023 to David Schnyer through The Center for Strategic and Innovative Technologies at The University of Texas at Austin.

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Clinical NeuroscienceResearch PaperDepression symptoms and cognitive control of emotion cues: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants

Behavioral results

Discussion

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Biol Psychiatry

J Affect Disord

Biol Psychiatry

Biol Psychiatry

Psychiatry Res

Neuron

Psychiatry Res

Information processing and cognitive organization in unipolar depression: specificity and comorbidity issues

J Abnorm Psychol

Attentional biases for negative interpersonal stimuli in clinical depression

J Abnorm Psychol

Epidemiology of DSM-III-R major depression and minor depression among adolescents and young adults in the national comorbidity survey

Depress Anxiety

Clinical Neuroscience
Research Paper
Depression symptoms and cognitive control of emotion cues: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study