Face-memory and emotion: associations with major depression in children and adolescents.
BACKGROUND
Studies in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) document abnormalities in both memory and face-emotion processing. The current study used a novel face-memory task to test the hypothesis that adolescent MDD is associated with a deficit in memory for face-emotions. The study also examines the relationship between parental MDD and memory performance in offspring.


METHODS
Subjects were 152 offspring (ages 9-19) of adults with either MDD, anxiety disorders, both MDD and anxiety, or no disorder. Parents and offspring were assessed for mental disorders. Collection of face-memory data was blind to offspring and parent diagnosis. A computerized task was developed that required rating of facial photographs depicting 'happy,"fearful,' or 'angry' emotions followed by a memory recall test. Recall accuracy was examined as a function of face-emotion type.


RESULTS
Age and gender independently predicted memory, with better recall in older and female subjects. Controlling for age and gender, offspring with a history of MDD (n = 19) demonstrated significant deficits in memory selectively for fearful faces, but not happy or angry faces. Parental MDD was not associated with face-memory accuracy.


CONCLUSIONS
This study found an association between MDD in childhood or adolescence and perturbed encoding of fearful faces. MDD in young individuals may predispose to subtle anomalies in a neural circuit encompassing the amygdala, a brain region implicated in the processing of fearful facial expressions. These findings suggest that brain imaging studies using similar face-emotion paradigms should test whether deficits in processing of fearful faces relate to amygdala dysfunction in children and adolescents with MDD.
Pine
Daniel S
DS
Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. daniel.pine@nih.gov
Lissek
Shmuel
S
Klein
Rachel G
RG
Mannuzza
Salvatore
S
Moulton
John L
JL
Guardino
Mary
M
Woldehawariat
Girma
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D008606:Mental Processes; D011939:Mental Recall; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012737:Sex Factors