title: The neural basis of difficulties disengaging from negative irrelevant material in major depression.
abstract: Recurrent uncontrollable negative thoughts are a hallmark of depressive episodes. Deficits in cognitive control have been proposed to underlie this debilitating aspect of depression. Here, we used functional neuroimaging during an emotional working memory (WM) task to elucidate the neural correlates of these difficulties in cognitive control. In a WM manipulation involving depressed participants, the dorsal anterior cingulate and parietal and bilateral insular cortices were activated significantly more when negative words were removed from WM than when they were maintained in WM; in contrast, nondepressed participants exhibited stronger neural activations in these regions for positive than for negative material. These findings implicate anomalous activation of components of the task-positive network, known to be modulated by cognitive effort, in depression-associated difficulties in expelling negative material from WM. Future studies should examine the association between these aberrations and the maintenance of depressive symptoms.
authors: Stanford Mood and Anxiety Disorders Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Jordan Hall, Building 420, Room 142, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. lfolandross@stanford.edu
authors: Lara C
authors: LC
authors: Foland-Ross
authors: J Paul
authors: JP
authors: Hamilton
authors: Jutta
authors: J
authors: Joormann
authors: Marc G
authors: MG
authors: Berman
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Jonides
authors: Ian H
authors: IH
authors: Gotlib
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult