Impact of childhood trauma and cognitive emotion regulation strategies on risk-aversive and loss-aversive patterns of decision-making in patients with depression.

INTRODUCTION: Although poor decision-making ultimately impairs quality of life in depression, few studies describe the clinical characteristics of patients suffering from dysfunctional decision-making. This study aims to delineate the effect of childhood trauma and other personality factors on risk-aversive and loss-aversive patterns of decision-making in patients with depression. METHODS: A total of 50 depressive patients completed surveys for the measurement of sociodemographic factors, trauma loads and other clinical characteristics, including depression, anxiety, and strategies for emotion regulation. Risk aversion and loss aversion were quantified using probability discounting task and a 50:50 gamble on monetary decision-making task under specified risks. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the factors, predicting risk aversion or loss aversion in depression. RESULTS: Childhood trauma was the most prominent factor predicting loss aversion in patients with depressive disorders. Overall maladaptive emotion regulation strategies were associated with risk aversion. CONCLUSION: Childhood trauma and specific strategies of emotion regulation contribute to risk or loss aversion in patients with depression. These findings may provide useful insight into elaborative evaluation and interventions to improve decision-making and quality of life in patients with depression.

Auditory imagery modulates frequency-specific areas in the human auditory cortex.

Neural responses in early sensory areas are influenced by top-down processing. In the visual system, early visual areas have been shown to actively participate in top-down processing based on their topographical properties. Although it has been suggested that the auditory cortex is involved in top-down control, functional evidence of topographic modulation is still lacking. Here, we show that mental auditory imagery for familiar melodies induces significant activation in the frequency-responsive areas of the primary auditory cortex (PAC). This activation is related to the characteristics of the imagery: when subjects were asked to imagine high-frequency melodies, we observed increased activation in the high- versus low-frequency response area; when the subjects were asked to imagine low-frequency melodies, the opposite was observed. Furthermore, we found that A1 is more closely related to the observed frequency-related modulation than R in tonotopic subfields of the PAC. Our findings suggest that top-down processing in the auditory cortex relies on a mechanism similar to that used in the perception of external auditory stimuli, which is comparable to early visual systems.