title: Differences in neural and cognitive response to emotional faces in middle-aged dizygotic twins at familial risk of depression.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Negative bias and aberrant neural processing of emotional faces are trait-marks of depression but findings in healthy high-risk groups are conflicting.
  
  
  METHODS
  Healthy middle-aged dizygotic twins (N = 42) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): 22 twins had a co-twin history of depression (high-risk) and 20 were without co-twin history of depression (low-risk). During fMRI, participants viewed fearful and happy faces while performing a gender discrimination task. After the scan, they were given a faces dot-probe task, a facial expression recognition task and questionnaires assessing mood, personality traits and coping.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Unexpectedly, high-risk twins showed reduced fear vigilance and lower recognition of fear and happiness relative to low-risk twins. During face processing in the scanner, high-risk twins displayed distinct negative functional coupling between the amygdala and ventral prefrontal cortex and pregenual anterior cingulate. This was accompanied by greater fear-specific fronto-temporal response and reduced fronto-occipital response to all emotional faces relative to baseline. The risk groups showed no differences in mood, subjective state or coping.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Less susceptibility to fearful faces and negative cortico-limbic coupling during emotional face processing may reflect neurocognitive compensatory mechanisms in middle-aged dizygotic twins who remain healthy despite their familial risk of depression.
authors.affiliation: Copenhagen Affective Disorders Research Centre,Copenhagen Psychiatric Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital,Rigshospitalet,Denmark.
authors.forename: K W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Miskowiak
authors.affiliation: Copenhagen Affective Disorders Research Centre,Copenhagen Psychiatric Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital,Rigshospitalet,Denmark.
authors.forename: A M B
authors.initials: AMB
authors.lastname: Svendsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry,University of Oxford,UK.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Harmer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester,UK.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.affiliation: Copenhagen Affective Disorders Research Centre,Copenhagen Psychiatric Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital,Rigshospitalet,Denmark.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Macoveanu
authors.affiliation: Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre,Denmark.
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Siebner
authors.affiliation: Copenhagen Affective Disorders Research Centre,Copenhagen Psychiatric Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital,Rigshospitalet,Denmark.
authors.forename: L V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Kessing
authors.affiliation: Copenhagen Affective Disorders Research Centre,Copenhagen Psychiatric Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital,Rigshospitalet,Denmark.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vinberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012306:Risk; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic
keywords: Depression; emotional faces; emotional processing; endophenotype; fMRI; high-risk; resilience; twins