Abstract
Mood abnormalities related to major depressive disorder (MDD) seem to result from disturbances in pathways connecting the fronto-limbic and subcortical, both regions known to be involved in the processing of emotional information. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we measured neural responses to viewing images of sad, angry and neutral faces in 21 patients with MDD and 15 healthy controls. When shown pictures of sad faces, patients with MDD relative controls showed decreased activations bilaterally in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), medial OFC, caudate, and hippocampus. We also found significant group differences under the angry face condition, bilaterally, in the inferior OFC and medial OFC areas. Our findings indicate that decreased activations in the fronto-limbic and subcortical regions in response to affectively negative stimuli may be associated with pathophysiology of MDD.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 778-785 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2008 Apr 1 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was supported by a grant (01-2005-02) from the Hallym University Medical Center Research Fund.
Keywords
- Anger
- Face
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
- Major depressive disorder
- Sad
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pharmacology
- Biological Psychiatry