Lei Hao1, Junyi Yang1, Yanqiu Wang1, Songyan Zhang1, Peng Xie2, Qinghua Luo3, Gaoping Ren3, Jiang Qiu4. 1. Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, PR China. 2. Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, PR China; Chongqing Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Chongqing 400016, PR China; Institute of Neuroscience, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, PR China. Electronic address: xiepeng@cqmu.edu.cn. 3. Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, PR China; Chongqing Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Chongqing 400016, PR China; Institute of Neuroscience, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, PR China. 4. Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, PR China. Electronic address: qiuj318@swu.edu.cn.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The causal attribution of depressive patients in negative events was significantly important. However, few previous studies have explored its neural underpinnings. METHODS: The current study examines the neural basis of causal attribution in negative events of depressed patients (12) compared with healthy controls (12) by using the Attribution Style Task (AST). Briefly, participants were presented with 80 sentences describing 40 positive and 40 negative social events. Participants were asked to imagine the event happening to them and select the most likely cause with a button press: 1 self (internal), 2 another person, and 3 situation (external). RESULTS: Behaviorally, controls showed a self-serving bias, whereas patients demonstrated a balanced attributional pattern with the attribution scores. Our fMRI results found a significant group difference in the inferior frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus in depressed participants compared to normal controls. Moreover, there was a significantly increased activation in the IPL during non-self-serving attributions in negative events of patients compared to controls. Most interestingly, we also found the BOLD signal change of the region of IPL was positively related to the duration of the illness of the patients. CONCLUSION: Based on our findings, we may infer that a stronger activation of the IPL in depression may demonstrate that depressed patients always pay more attention to self-reference in negative events. SIGNIFICANCE: These interesting findings might provide a biomarker of subtle differences in brain signal alterations associated with depressive cognitive characteristics.
OBJECTIVE: The causal attribution of depressivepatients in negative events was significantly important. However, few previous studies have explored its neural underpinnings. METHODS: The current study examines the neural basis of causal attribution in negative events of depressedpatients (12) compared with healthy controls (12) by using the Attribution Style Task (AST). Briefly, participants were presented with 80 sentences describing 40 positive and 40 negative social events. Participants were asked to imagine the event happening to them and select the most likely cause with a button press: 1 self (internal), 2 another person, and 3 situation (external). RESULTS: Behaviorally, controls showed a self-serving bias, whereas patients demonstrated a balanced attributional pattern with the attribution scores. Our fMRI results found a significant group difference in the inferior frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus in depressedparticipants compared to normal controls. Moreover, there was a significantly increased activation in the IPL during non-self-serving attributions in negative events of patients compared to controls. Most interestingly, we also found the BOLD signal change of the region of IPL was positively related to the duration of the illness of the patients. CONCLUSION: Based on our findings, we may infer that a stronger activation of the IPL in depression may demonstrate that depressedpatients always pay more attention to self-reference in negative events. SIGNIFICANCE: These interesting findings might provide a biomarker of subtle differences in brain signal alterations associated with depressive cognitive characteristics.
Authors: Claire Adams Spears; Dina M Jones; Scott R Weaver; Terry F Pechacek; Michael P Eriksen Journal: Addict Behav Date: 2018-01-16 Impact factor: 3.913