Neural Correlates of Emotion Inhibition in Recurrent Major Depressive Disorder
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2023-02-23
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
Major Depressive Disorder’s (MDD) high disease burden can partially be attributed to its high recurrence rate. Since cognitive control deficits often remain after remission, emotion inhibition may be an important vulnerability factor in the recurrence of depression. The current study aims to investigate the behavioural and neural association between cognitive control, specifically emotion inhibition, and MDD, and its potential role as a risk factor for depressive relapse. Additionally, the modulatory effect of depressive brooding on emotion inhibition capacity was examined. 57 patients with remitted recurrent MDD (rrMDD) and 41 never-depressed matched controls performed a Cued Emotional Conflict Task (CECT) while undergoing fMRI, in order to measure their abilities to inhibit a dominant response to positive or negative stimuli. rrMDD-patients were followed up for 2.5 years to detect potential recurrence of depressive episodes. There were no differences in behavioural performance and neural activity in the CECT between patients and controls. Participants were faster in responding to happy as compared to sad stimuli, and were faster in trials where they could give in to a dominant response as compared to trials in which they had to inhibit a dominant response. Emotion inhibition showed to be associated with increased dlPFC activity, as well as decreased ventral ACC (vACC) activity. However, these effects did not differ between patients and controls. rrMDD-patients who did experience a relapse within the follow-up period showed increased vACC activity during emotion inhibition trials as compared to patients without relapse. This might indicate a deficit in regulation of this brain region in relapse patients during emotion inhibition. The absence of expected group differences on a behavioural and neural level might suggest that emotion inhibition is not a very informative factor in the recurrence of depression.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen