Neural mechanisms of subclinical depressive symptoms in women: a pilot functional brain imaging study

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Creator
  • Felder, Jennifer N
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Neurodevelopment Disorders Research Center, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Smoski, Moria J
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center
  • Kozink, Rachel V
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center
  • Froeliger, Brett
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center
  • McClernon, Joseph
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center
  • Bizzell, Joshua
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Neurodevelopment Disorders Research Center, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities
    • Other Affiliation: Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center
  • Petty, Christopher
    • Other Affiliation: Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center
  • Dichter, Gabriel
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Neurodevelopment Disorders Research Center, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center
Abstract
  • Background Studies of individuals who do not meet criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) but with subclinical levels of depressive symptoms may aid in the identification of neurofunctional abnormalities that possibly precede and predict the development of MDD. The purpose of this study was to evaluate relations between subclinical levels of depressive symptoms and neural activation patterns during tasks previously shown to differentiate individuals with and without MDD. Methods Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess neural activations during active emotion regulation, a resting state scan, and reward processing. Participants were twelve females with a range of depressive symptoms who did not meet criteria for MDD. Results Increased depressive symptom severity predicted (1) decreased left midfrontal gyrus activation during reappraisal of sad stimuli; (2) increased right midfrontal gyrus activation during distraction from sad stimuli; (3) increased functional connectivity between a precuneus seed region and left orbitofrontal cortex during a resting state scan; and (4) increased paracingulate activation during non-win outcomes during a reward-processing task. Conclusions These pilot data shed light on relations between subclinical levels of depressive symptoms in the absence of a formal MDD diagnosis and neural activation patterns. Future studies will be needed to test the utility of these activation patterns for predicting MDD onset in at-risk samples.
Date of publication
DOI
Identifier
  • doi:10.1186/1471-244X-12-152
  • 22998631
Resource type
  • Article
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Rights holder
  • Jennifer N Felder et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
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Journal title
  • BMC Psychiatry
Journal volume
  • 12
Journal issue
  • 1
Page start
  • 152
Language
  • English
Is the article or chapter peer-reviewed?
  • Yes
ISSN
  • 1471-244X
Bibliographic citation
  • BMC Psychiatry. 2012 Sep 21;12(1):152
Publisher
  • BioMed Central Ltd
Access right
  • Open Access
Date uploaded
  • November 16, 2012

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