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

• Published in: Human brain mapping Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 797 - 810
• Main Authors: Ebneabbasi, Amir, Mahdipour, Mostafa, Nejati, Vahid, Li, Meng, Liebe, Thomas, Colic, Lejla, Leutritz, Anna Linda, Vogel, Matthias, Zarei, Mojtaba, Walter, Martin, Tahmasian, Masoud
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 15-02-2021
• Subjects: Adult; Affective Symptoms - diagnostic imaging; Affective Symptoms - etiology; Affective Symptoms - physiopathology; amplitude of low frequency fluctuations; Amygdala; Amygdala - diagnostic imaging; Amygdala - physiopathology; Brain; Brain mapping; Cerebral Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Cognitive ability; Connectome - methods; Depressive Disorder, Major - complications; Depressive Disorder, Major - diagnostic imaging; Depressive Disorder, Major - physiopathology; emotion processing; emotion regulation; Emotional Regulation - physiology; Emotions; Female; functional connectivity; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Laws, regulations and rules; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Major depressive disorder; Male; Mediation; Mental depression; Middle Aged; Neural networks; Severity of Illness Index; emotion regulation; emotion processing; functional connectivity; major depressive disorder; amplitude of low frequency fluctuations
• ISSN: 1065-9471; 1097-0193
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25263

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.
This study aims to identify whether EP‐ and ER‐related areas are regionally and/or connectively disturbed in MDD and how EP‐ and ER‐related areas are interactively linked to regulatory behavior, and whether this interaction is disrupted in MDD. Our findings demonstrated that (a) MDD is associated with regional and/or connectivity alterations of EP‐ and ER‐related areas; (b) EP‐ER interaction seems to be disrupted in MDD; (c) depression severity is correlated with FC of EP‐ and ER‐ related areas.