title: Shifted inferior frontal laterality in women with major depressive disorder is related to emotion-processing deficits.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Facial emotion perception (FEP) is a critical human skill for successful social interaction, and a substantial body of literature suggests that explicit FEP is disrupted in major depressive disorder (MDD). Prior research suggests that weakness in FEP may be an important phenomenon underlying patterns of emotion-processing challenges in MDD and the disproportionate frequency of MDD in women. Method Women with (n = 24) and without (n = 22) MDD, equivalent in age and education, completed a FEP task during functional magnetic resonance imaging.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The MDD group exhibited greater extents of frontal, parietal and subcortical activation compared with the control group during FEP. Activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) appeared shifted from a left >right pattern observed in healthy women to a bilateral pattern in MDD women. The ratio of left to right suprathreshold IFG voxels in healthy controls was nearly 3:1, whereas in the MDD group, there was a greater percentage of suprathreshold IFG voxels bilaterally, with no leftward bias. In MDD, relatively greater activation in right IFG compared with left IFG (ratio score) was present and predicted FEP accuracy (r = 0.56, p < 0.004), with an inverse relationship observed between FEP and subgenual cingulate activation (r = - 0.46, p = 0.02).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study links, for the first time, disrupted IFG activation laterality and increased subgenual cingulate activation with deficient FEP in women with MDD, providing an avenue for imaging-to-assessment translational applications in MDD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Briceño
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Weisenbach
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Rapport
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Hazlett
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Bieliauskas
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Haase
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Ransom
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Brinkman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peciña
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Schteingart
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Starkman
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Giordani
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Welsh
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Noll
authors.forename: J-K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Zubieta
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Langenecker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007839:Functional Laterality; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult