Risk for depression and neural responses to fearful facial expressions of emotion

• Published in: British journal of psychiatry Vol. 194; no. 2; pp. 139 - 145
• Main Authors: Chan, Stella W. Y., Norbury, Ray, Goodwin, Guy M., Harmer, Catherine J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.02.2009; RCP
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Amygdala; Amygdala - physiopathology; Anxiety; Brain research; Cerebellum; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Depression; Depressive Disorder - epidemiology; Depressive Disorder - physiopathology; Emotion recognition; Emotions; Emotions - physiology; Facial Expression; Facial expressions; Fear; Fear - psychology; Female; Functional Laterality - physiology; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Happiness; Humans; Information processing; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Mental depression; Morality; Neurosis; Neuroticism; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Personality Assessment; Psychiatry; Risk Factors; Software; Temporal gyrus; Volunteers; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0007-1250; 1472-1465; 1472-1465
• DOI: 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.047993

Depression is associated with neural abnormalities in emotional processing. This study explored whether these abnormalities underlie risk for depression. We compared the neural responses of volunteers who were at high and low-risk for the development of depression (by virtue of high and low neuroticism scores; high-N group and low-N group respectively) during the presentation of fearful and happy faces using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The high-N group demonstrated linear increases in response in the right fusiform gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus to expressions of increasing fear, whereas the low-N group demonstrated the opposite effect. The high-N group also displayed greater responses in the right amygdala, cerebellum, left middle frontal and bilateral parietal gyri to medium levels of fearful v. happy expressions. Risk for depression is associated with enhanced neural responses to fearful facial expressions similar to those observed in acute depression.