Neural correlates of affective processing in response to sad and angry facial stimuli in patients with major depressive disorder.
Mood abnormalities related to major depressive disorder (MDD) seem to result from disturbances in pathways connecting the fronto-limbic and subcortical, both regions known to be involved in the processing of emotional information. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we measured neural responses to viewing images of sad, angry and neutral faces in 21 patients with MDD and 15 healthy controls. When shown pictures of sad faces, patients with MDD relative controls showed decreased activations bilaterally in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), medial OFC, caudate, and hippocampus. We also found significant group differences under the angry face condition, bilaterally, in the inferior OFC and medial OFC areas. Our findings indicate that decreased activations in the fronto-limbic and subcortical regions in response to affectively negative stimuli may be associated with pathophysiology of MDD.
Lee
Byeong-Taek
BT
Department of Psychiatry, Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea.
Seok
Jeong-Ho
JH
Lee
Boung-Chul
BC
Cho
Seong Whi
SW
Yoon
Bong-June
BJ
Lee
Kyoung-Uk
KU
Chae
Jung-Ho
JH
Choi
Ihn-Geun
IG
Ham
Byung-Joo
BJ
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods
D010100:Oxygen