title: Affective responses across psychiatric disorders-A dimensional approach.
abstract: Studying psychiatric disorders across nosological boundaries aims at a better understanding of mental disorders by identifying comprehensive signatures of core symptoms. Here, we studied neurobiological correlates of emotion processing in several major psychiatric disorders. We assessed differences between diagnostic groups, and investigated whether there is a psychopathological correlate of emotion processing that transcends disorder categories. 135 patient with psychiatric disorders (alcohol dependence, n=29; schizophrenia, n=37; major depressive disorder (MDD), n=25; acute manic episode of bipolar disorder, n=12; panic disorder, n=12, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), n=20) and healthy controls (n=40) underwent an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment with affectively positive, aversive and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Between-group differences were assessed with full-factorial ANOVAs, with age, gender and smoking habits as covariates. Self-ratings of depressed mood and anxiety were correlated with activation clusters showing significant stimulus-evoked fMRI activation. Furthermore, we examined functional connectivity with the amygdala as seed region during the processing of aversive pictures. During the presentation of pleasant stimuli, we observed across all subjects significant activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), bilateral middle temporal gyrus and right precuneus, while a significant activation of the left amygdala and the bilateral middle temporal gyrus was found during the presentation of aversive stimuli. We did neither find any significant interaction with diagnostic group, nor any correlation with depression and anxiety scores at the activated clusters or with amygdala connectivity. Positive and aversive IAPS-stimuli were consistently processed in limbic and prefrontal brain areas, irrespective of diagnostic category. A dimensional correlate of these neural activation patterns was not found.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: claudia.haegele@charite.de.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hägele
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Friedel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schlagenhauf
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sterzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bermpohl
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Meline
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stoy
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Dada
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Held-Poschardt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wittmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ströhle
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heinz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008032:Limbic System / Q000503:physiopathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
keywords: Connectivity; Dimensional; Emotional pictures task; IAPS; fMRI