TY - JOUR
T1 - Altered neural function to happy faces in adolescents with and at risk for depression
AU - Kerestes, Rebecca
AU - Segreti, Anna Maria
AU - Pan, Lisa A.
AU - Phillips, Mary L.
AU - Birmaher, Boris
AU - Brent, David A.
AU - Ladouceur, Cecile D.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grants to Dr. Ladouceur ( K01-MH083001 ), Dr. Brent ( R01-MH66775 , -MH65368 , -MH56612 and - MH18951 ), Dr. Phillips ( MH076971 ), Dr. Birmaher ( R01-MH60952 ) and Dr. Pan ( K23-MH082884 ). The research was also supported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Fellowship for Adolescent Depression. The authors gratefully acknowledge the children and their families for participating in this study as well as Sharon Nau, Emily Belleau, Claire Dempsey, and Jacqueline Rosenstern, employed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), for their assistance in research procedures. They also thank Dr. K.J. Jung, Scott Kurdilla and Debbie Vizslay, employed by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon's Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC), for their help acquiring the neuroimaging data.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - Background There is accumulating evidence of alterations in neural circuitry underlying the processing of social-affective information in adolescent Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). However the extent to which such alterations are present in youth at risk for mood disorders remains unclear. Method Whole-brain blood oxygenation level-dependent task responses and functional connectivity using generalized psychophysiological interaction (gPPI) analyses to mild and intense happy face stimuli was examined in 29 adolescents with MDD (MDD; M age, 16.0, S.D. 1.2 years), 38 healthy adolescents at risk of a mood disorder, by virtue of having a parent diagnosed with either Bipolar Disorder (BD) or MDD (Mood-risk; M age 13.4, S.D. 2.5 years) and 43 healthy control adolescents, having parents with no psychiatric disorder (HC; M age 14.6, S.D. 2.2 years). Results Relative to HC adolescents, Mood-risk adolescents showed elevated right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation to 100% intensity happy (vs. neutral) faces and concomitant lowered ventral putamen activity to 50% intensity happy (vs. neutral) faces. gPPI analyses revealed that MDD adolescents showed significantly lower right DLPFC functional connectivity with the ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC) compared to HC to all happy faces. Limitations The current study is limited by the smaller number of healthy offspring at risk for MDD compared to BD. Conclusions Because Mood-risk adolescents were healthy at the time of the scan, elevated DLPFC and lowered ventral striatal activity in Mood-risk adolescents may be associated with risk or resiliency. In contrast, altered DLPFC-VLPFC functional connectivity in MDD adolescents may be associated with depressed mood state. Such alterations may affect social-affective development and progression to a mood disorder in Mood-risk adolescents. Future longitudinal follow-up studies are needed to directly answer this research question.
AB - Background There is accumulating evidence of alterations in neural circuitry underlying the processing of social-affective information in adolescent Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). However the extent to which such alterations are present in youth at risk for mood disorders remains unclear. Method Whole-brain blood oxygenation level-dependent task responses and functional connectivity using generalized psychophysiological interaction (gPPI) analyses to mild and intense happy face stimuli was examined in 29 adolescents with MDD (MDD; M age, 16.0, S.D. 1.2 years), 38 healthy adolescents at risk of a mood disorder, by virtue of having a parent diagnosed with either Bipolar Disorder (BD) or MDD (Mood-risk; M age 13.4, S.D. 2.5 years) and 43 healthy control adolescents, having parents with no psychiatric disorder (HC; M age 14.6, S.D. 2.2 years). Results Relative to HC adolescents, Mood-risk adolescents showed elevated right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation to 100% intensity happy (vs. neutral) faces and concomitant lowered ventral putamen activity to 50% intensity happy (vs. neutral) faces. gPPI analyses revealed that MDD adolescents showed significantly lower right DLPFC functional connectivity with the ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC) compared to HC to all happy faces. Limitations The current study is limited by the smaller number of healthy offspring at risk for MDD compared to BD. Conclusions Because Mood-risk adolescents were healthy at the time of the scan, elevated DLPFC and lowered ventral striatal activity in Mood-risk adolescents may be associated with risk or resiliency. In contrast, altered DLPFC-VLPFC functional connectivity in MDD adolescents may be associated with depressed mood state. Such alterations may affect social-affective development and progression to a mood disorder in Mood-risk adolescents. Future longitudinal follow-up studies are needed to directly answer this research question.
KW - Adolescence
KW - Functional connectivity
KW - Major depressive disorder
KW - Social-affective processing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84951336291&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jad.2015.12.013
DO - 10.1016/j.jad.2015.12.013
M3 - Article
C2 - 26724693
AN - SCOPUS:84951336291
SN - 0165-0327
VL - 192
SP - 143
EP - 152
JO - Journal of Affective Disorders
JF - Journal of Affective Disorders
ER -