title: Gender moderates the association between dorsal medial prefrontal cortex volume and depressive symptoms in a subclinical sample.
abstract: Major depressive disorder is associated with lower medial prefrontal cortex volumes. The role that gender might play in moderating this relationship and what particular medial prefrontal cortex subregion(s) might be implicated is unclear. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess dorsal, ventral, and anterior cingulate regions of the medial prefrontal cortex in a normative sample of male and female adults. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS) was used to measure these three variables. Voxel-based morphometry was used to test for correlations between medial prefrontal gray matter volume and depressive traits. The dorsal medial frontal cortex was correlated with greater levels of depression, but not anxiety and stress. Gender moderates this effect: in males greater levels of depression were associated with lower dorsal medial prefrontal volumes, but in females no relationship was observed. The results indicate that even within a non-clinical sample, male participants with higher levels of depressive traits tend to have lower levels of gray matter volume in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex. Our finding is consistent with low dorsal medial prefrontal volume contributing to the development of depression in males. Future longitudinal work is needed to substantiate this possibility.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI 49855, USA. Electronic address: joshcarl@nmu.edu.
authors.forename: Joshua M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI 49855, USA.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Depetro
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI 49855, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Eddie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Harmon-Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hajcak
mesh_terms: D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Brain morphometry; Depression; Gender difference; Negative affect; Prefrontal cortex