title: Altered task-specific deactivation in the default mode network depends on valence in patients with major depressive disorder.
abstract: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a highly prevalent psychiatric condition in which patients often have difficulties regulating their emotions. Prior studies have shown that attention bias towards negative emotion is linked to activation in regions of the default mode network (DMN) in MDD individuals. Furthermore, MDD patients showed increased resting-state functional connectivity (FC) between the medial prefrontal cortex and other DMN structures.
  
  
  
  Twenty-one MDD patients that currently experiencing depressive episodes and twenty-five healthy control participants performed the current emotional expectancy paradigm in a gradient-echo SENSE-SPIRAL fMRI. Whole brain and psycho-physiological interaction (PPI) analysis were applied to explore the task-related brain activity and FCs.
  
  
  
  Relative to healthy participants, we found MDD patients had greater activity in dorsal medial prefrontal cortex as a function of positive vs. neutral expectancy conditions. PPI results revealed a significant group difference of MDD patients having relatively decreased task-dependent decoupling from dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) towards posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and parieto-occipital cortex during positive vs. neutral expectancy conditions, and patients exhibited a positive correlation between PPI (DMPFC and PCC) and anhedonia as measured via SHAPS during the same conditions.
  
  
  
  Modest sample size and lack of concurrent depressive episodes limit the generalizability of our findings.
  
  
  
  In MDD patients, insufficient DMN decoupling might occur in response to positive expectancy conditions. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that high intrinsic DMN connectivity in MDD patients interfere with the down-regulation of intrinsic focus in order to incorporate information derived from external positive events.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Shanghai, China; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Shijia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China; Tianjin Anning Hospital, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Chuanjun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhuo
authors.affiliation: Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Chicago, United States.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Safron
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Genz
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Chunshui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Chicago, United States; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. Electronic address: martin.walter@uni-tuebingen.de.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walter
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Default mode network; Functional connectivity; Major depressive disorder; Psycho-physiological interaction