Neural Activity During Self-referential Processing in Children at Risk for Depression.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging
; 5(4): 429-437, 2020 04.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32081615
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
According to cognitive theories of depression, more negative and less positive self-schemas are thought to play a causal role in the disorder. Existing evidence speaks to the neural substrates of self-referential processes in both healthy and depressed individuals, but little is known about how the brain relates to self-referential processing in the context of depression risk in children. We therefore studied the neural substrates of self-referential processing in never-depressed preadolescent children at high and low risk for depression based on maternal depression history.METHODS:
A total of 87 never-depressed 10-12-year-old children (29 with maternal depression) completed a self-referential encoding task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging session, in which they were presented a series of positive and negative trait adjectives and endorsed whether each word was self-descriptive. Small volume correction analyses were conducted within 7 regions of interest that are important for self-referential and emotion-related processes.RESULTS:
Analyses of small volume correction indicated that high-risk children showed greater activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the positive-word self-referential encoding task condition than low-risk children. Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation mediated the association between maternal depression and child depressive symptoms only when children had lower positive self-schemas, indicating that more positive self-schemas may protect at-risk children from developing depressive symptoms.CONCLUSIONS:
Cortical midline and prefrontal regions are important to self-, emotion-, and regulation-related processes. Heightened activation within these regions in never-depressed high-risk children indicates that these neurobiological substrates may mediate early vulnerability to depression in the context of cognitive processes relevant to self-concepts.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Córtex Pré-Frontal
/
Depressão
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Child
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging
Ano de publicação:
2020
Tipo de documento:
Article