title: Functional connectivity of the amygdala and subgenual cingulate during cognitive reappraisal of emotions in children with MDD history is associated with rumination.
abstract: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is characterized by poor emotion regulation. Rumination, a maladaptive strategy for dealing with negative emotions, is common in MDD, and is associated with impaired inhibition and cognitive inflexibility that may contribute to impaired emotion regulation abilities. However, it is unclear whether rumination is differently associated with emotion regulation in individuals with MDD history (MDD-ever) and healthy individuals. In this study, children (8-15 years old) performed a cognitive reappraisal task in which they attempted to decrease their emotional response to sad images during fMRI scanning. Functional connectivity (FC) between both the amygdala and subgenual anterior cingulate (sACC) increased with cortical control regions during reappraisal as rumination increased in MDD-ever, while connectivity between those regions decreased during reappraisal as rumination increased in healthy controls. As the role of cortical control regions is to down-regulate activity of emotion processing regions during reappraisal, this suggests that rumination in MDD-ever, but not controls, is associated with inefficient regulation. This finding suggests that rumination may be particularly associated with poor emotion regulation in MDD-ever, and may also indicate qualitative group differences in whether rumination is maladaptive. These differences in rumination may provide important insight into depressive risk and potential avenues for treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. Electronic address: murphye@wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Eric R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA; The Program in Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA; Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA; Department of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: Deanna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Barch
authors.affiliation: The Program in Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA; Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pagliaccio
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: Joan L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Luby
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: Andy C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Belden
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013850:Thinking
keywords: Amygdala; Cognitive reappraisal; Functional connectivity; Rumination; Subgenual cingulate