title: Increased left prefrontal activation in patients with unipolar depression: an event-related, parametric, performance-controlled fMRI study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Executive deficits associated with frontal lobe dysfunction are prominent in depression. We applied a newly developed WM task to investigate the neural correlates of executive processes with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at comparable performance levels analyzing correct trials only.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 12 partially remitted, medicated inpatients meeting DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder and 17 healthy controls. We used a parametric version of a delayed match-to-sample WM task requiring manipulation of verbal material during a delay period in an event-related fMRI design.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Depressed patients were generally slower and load-dependently less accurate than healthy controls. Patients showed significantly more activation of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with highest cognitive load. Additionally, they showed higher activation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the control condition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The fact that patients were taking different antidepressant drugs could limit the explanatory power of the present results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increased lateral prefrontal activation despite comparably successful performance - when only correct trials were analyzed - in patients with depression can be interpreted as evidence for compensatory recruitment of prefrontal cortical resources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Division of Medical Psychology, University Clinic Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Strasse 25, D-53105 Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.forename: Robert Christian
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spitzer
authors.forename: Nenad
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vasic
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*