Emotion processing and regulation in major depressive disorder: A 7T resting-state fMRI study

• Main Authors: Colic, L. (Author), Ebneabbasi, A. (Author), Leutritz, A.L (Author), Li, M. (Author), Liebe, T. (Author), Mahdipour, M. (Author), Nejati, V. (Author), Tahmasian, M. (Author), Vogel, M. (Author), Walter, M. (Author), Zarei, M. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: John Wiley and Sons Inc 2021
• Subjects: adult; Adult; Affective Symptoms; amplitude of low frequency fluctuations; amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation; amygdala; Amygdala; antidepressant agent; Article; brain cortex; Cerebral Cortex; clinical article; comparative study; complication; connectome; Connectome; controlled study; convergent validity; Depressive Disorder, Major; diagnostic imaging; discriminant validity; disease severity; emotion processing; emotion regulation; emotional disorder; Emotional Regulation; executive function; female; Female; functional connectivity; functional magnetic resonance imaging; gray matter; Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; human; Humans; ICD-10; inferior frontal gyrus; inferior parietal lobule; internal consistency; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; major depression; major depressive disorder; male; Male; medial prefrontal cortex; middle aged; Middle Aged; middle temporal gyrus; nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; pathophysiology; physiology; posterior cingulate; priority journal; procedures; psychometry; regulatory mechanism; right handedness; serotonin noradrenalin reuptake inhibitor; serotonin uptake inhibitor; severity of illness index; Severity of Illness Index; structural equation modeling; supplementary motor area; white matter
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Dysfunctions in bottom-up emotion processing (EP), as well as top-down emotion regulation (ER) are prominent features in pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). Nonetheless, it is not clear whether EP- and ER-related areas are regionally and/or connectively disturbed in MDD. In addition, it is yet to be known how EP- and ER-related areas are interactively linked to regulatory behavior, and whether this interaction is disrupted in MDD. In our study, regional amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) of meta-analytic-driven EP- and ER-related areas were compared between 32 healthy controls (HC) and 20 MDD patients. Then, we aimed to investigate whether the EP-related areas can predict the ER-related areas and regulatory behavior in both groups. Finally, the brain–behavior correlations between the EP- and ER-related areas and depression severity were assessed. We found that: (a) affective areas are regionally and/or connectively disturbed in MDD; (b) EP-ER interaction seems to be disrupted in MDD; overburden of emotional reactivity in amygdala may inversely affect cognitive control processes in prefrontal cortices, which leads to diminished regulatory actions. (c) Depression severity is correlated with FC of affective areas. Our findings shed new lights on the neural underpinning of affective dysfunctions in depression. © 2020 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.