Resting-state functional connectivity and inflexibility of daily emotions in major depression.
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ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is characterized by aberrant resting-state functional connectivity (FC) in anterior cingulate regions (e.g., subgenual anterior cingulate [sgACC]) and by negative emotional functioning that is inflexible or resistant to change. METHODS:MDD (N?=?33) and control (CTL; N?=?31) adults completed a resting-state scan, followed by a smartphone-based Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) protocol surveying 10 positive and negative emotions 5 times per day for 21 days. We used multilevel modeling to assess moment-to-moment emotional inflexibility (i.e., strong temporal connections between emotions). We examined group differences in whole-brain FC analysis of bilateral sgACC, and then examined associations between emotional experiences and the extracted FC values within each group. RESULTS:As predicted, MDDs had inflexibility in sadness and avoidance (p < .001, FDR-corrected p < .05), indicating that these emotional experiences persist in depression. MDDs showed weaker FC between the right sgACC and pregenual/dorsal anterior cingulate (pg/dACC) than did CTLs (FWE-corrected, voxelwise p = .01). Importantly, sgACC-pg/dACC FC predicted sadness inflexibility in both MDDs (p?=?.046) and CTLs (p?=?.033), suggesting that sgACC FC is associated with day-to-day negative emotions. LIMITATIONS:Other maladaptive behaviors likely also affect the flexibility of negative emotions. We cannot generalize our finding of a positive relation between sgACC FC and inflexibility of sadness to individuals with more chronic depression or who have recovered from depression. CONCLUSIONS:Our preliminary findings suggest that connections between portions of the ACC contribute to the persistence of negative emotions and are important in identifying a brain mechanism that may underlie the maintenance of sadness in daily life.
SUBMITTER: Schwartz J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6446895 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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