title: Rostral anterior cingulate cortex activity mediates the relationship between the depressive symptoms and the medial prefrontal cortex activity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Depression is characterized by enhanced self-referential processing of negative emotional stimuli. Imaging studies have suggested that activation of both the medial prefrontal (MPFC) and anterior cingulate cortices (ACC) is associated with self-referential processing. However, whether this pattern of activation occurs in depressed individuals during the self-referential processing of the emotional stimuli had not been investigated to date.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 13 patients with major depressive disorder and 13 normal controls. We used block-designed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate neural activity during the self-referential judgments of positive and negative valenced personality trait words.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with the normal controls, the depressed patients showed hyperactivity in the MPFC and the rostral ACC during the self-referential processing of negative words. In addition, the activity of these regions during self-referential processing of the negative stimuli was correlated with the depressive symptom severity. The rostral ACC activity mediated the correlation between the MPFC activity and the depressive symptoms. Functional connectivity analysis revealed positive connectivities between the MPFC, the rostral ACC, and the amygdala.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Small N and antidepressant effect on imaging data limit the stability of reported findings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The relationships between the MPFC, the rostral ACC, and the amygdala appear to reflect an interaction between the self-referential processing and the negative emotional information processing, and we propose that the strong connection between the MPFC and the rostral ACC is associated with depressive symptoms.
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Division of Frontier Medical Science, Programs for Biomedical Research, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3, Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan.
authors: Shinpei
authors: S
authors: Yoshimura
authors: Yasumasa
authors: Y
authors: Okamoto
authors: Keiichi
authors: K
authors: Onoda
authors: Miki
authors: M
authors: Matsunaga
authors: Kazutaka
authors: K
authors: Ueda
authors: Shin-ichi
authors: S
authors: Suzuki
authors: Shigetoyamawaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012660:Semantics