title: Reduced activation in lateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate during attention and cognitive control functions in medication-naïve adolescents with depression compared to controls.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is increasing recognition of major depressive disorder (MDD) in adolescence. In adult MDD, abnormalities of fronto-striatal and fronto-cingulate circuitries mediating cognitive control functions have been implicated in the pathogenesis and been related to problems with controlling negative thoughts. No neuroimaging studies of cognitive control functions, however, exist in paediatric depression. This study investigated whether medication-naïve adolescents with MDD show abnormal brain activation of fronto-striatal and fronto-cingulate networks when performing tasks of attentional and cognitive control.
  
  
  METHODS
  Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to compare brain activation between 21 medication-naïve adolescents with a first-episode of MDD aged 14-17 years and 21 healthy adolescents, matched for handedness, age, sex, demographics and IQ. Activation paradigms were tasks of selective attention (Simon task), attentional switching (Switch task), and motor response inhibition and error detection (Stop task).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all three tasks, adolescents with depression compared to healthy controls demonstrated reduced activation in task-relevant right dorsolateral (DLPFC), inferior prefrontal cortex (IFC) and anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG). Additional areas of relatively reduced activation were in the parietal lobes during the Stop and Switch tasks, putamen, insula and temporal lobes during the Switch task and precuneus during the Simon task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study shows first evidence that medication-naïve adolescents with MDD are characterised by abnormal function in ACG and right lateral prefrontal cortex during tasks of attention and performance monitoring, suggesting an early pathogenesis of these functional abnormalities attributed to MDD.
authors.affiliation: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK. r.halari@iop.kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Rozmin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Halari
authors.forename: Mima
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simic
authors.forename: Carmine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Pariante
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Papadopoulos
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cleare
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brammer
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fombonne
authors.forename: Katya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rubia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000503:physiopathology; D003710:Demography; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*