Neuropsychobiology最新文献

Introduction: Emotion regulation (ER), the ability to actively modulate one's own emotion reactions, likely depends on the individual's current emotional state. Here, we investigated whether negative emotions induced by an interpersonal autobiographic script affect the neuronal processes underlying ER.

Methods: Twenty healthy participants were recruited and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during performance of distancing, a specific ER strategy, while viewing emotionally arousing pictures. Participants were instructed to either naturally experience ("permit" condition) or to actively downregulate ("regulate" condition) their emotional responses to the presented stimuli. Before each of the 4 runs in total, a neutral or negative autobiographical audio script was presented. The negative script comprised an emotionally negative event from childhood or adolescence that represented either emotional abuse or emotional neglect. The second event comprised an everyday neutral situation. We aimed at identifying the neural correlates of ER and their modulation by script-driven imagery.

Results: fMRI analyses testing for greater responses in the "regulate" than the "permit" condition replicated previously reported neural correlates of ER in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the right inferior parietal lobule. A significant ER effect was also observed in the left orbitofrontal cortex. In the amygdala, we found greater responses in the "permit" compared to the "regulate" condition. We did not observe a significant modulation of the ER effects in any of these regions by the negative emotional state induced by autobiographical scripts. Bayesian statistics confirmed the absence of such modulations by providing marginal evidence for null effects.

Discussion: While we replicated previously reported neural correlates of ER, we found no evidence for an effect of mood induction with individualized autobiographical scripts on the neural processes underlying ER in healthy participants.

Introduction: Irritable mood (IM) and subthreshold hypomanic symptoms are reported in half and two-fifths of major depressed subjects respectively, but their clinical and prognostic meanings remain unclear. The aim of this study was to test the clinical usefulness of 2 specifiers in DSM-IV major depressive disorder (MDD): IM occurring during an index episode (IM+) and lifetime episodes of elated mood or IM with at least 2 concurrent hypomanic symptoms (subthreshold hypomanic episodes [SHEs]).

Method: We included 482 outpatients with MDD participating in the Combining Medications to Enhance Depression Outcome study (mean age 43.14 ± 12.46 years, 144 males - 30%). The main aim of the original study was to test whether 2 different medications when given in combination as the first treatment step, compared to 1 medication, would improve antidepressant response.

Results: IM + subjects (N = 349; 70%) were younger and more often females, with a more severe depression, a more marked social impairment, and more psychiatric comorbidities. The IM + group was also characterized by higher levels of suicidal ideation and more cases of emotional abuse. The combination of IM+ and SHEs was associated with an even more severe clinical picture. Limitations include the post hoc method, incomplete assessment of bipolar validators (e.g., family history of bipolar illness), personality disorders and suicide attempts.

Conclusions: The presence of IM and SHEs in MDD correlate with an overall more severe clinical condition.