Assessing neural markers of vulnerability to depression in adolescent girls

Authors

Grant Shields, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Document Type

Video

Publication Date

1-21-2021

Keywords

Adolescent girls; Depression; Negative social evaluation; Anterior cingulate cortex; Ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Collection

Integrative Systems Neuroscience Seminar Series

Abstract

In this study, we examined fMRI activity and functional connectivity in response to negative social evaluation in a sample of 50 adolescent girls, 25 of which were of high risk for developing depression (due to their mother having depression; i.e., genetic risk), and 25 of which were of low risk. In these analyses, we focused on regions previously implicated in self-referential processing (e.g., the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex [ACC]), emotion regulation (e.g., the ventromedial prefrontal cortex [VMPFC]), and negative emotion (e.g., the amygdala).

We found that when receiving negative social evaluation, relative to low-risk girls, high-risk girls showed greater anterior insula-VMPFC functional connectivity, greater ACC-VMPFC functional connectivity, less VMPFC-amygdala functional connectivity, and greater amygdala activity. This pattern of results entails that girls in the high-risk group exhibited greater signaling between regions implicated in self-referential regions and executive control when receiving negative social evaluation, which is consistent with a greater perceived rejection of self and subsequent recognized need to exert executive control over emotions in the high-risk group.

Comments

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Citation

Shields, G. (2021). Assessing neural markers of vulnerability to depression in adolescent girls. Publications and Presentations. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/neuropub/3