Automatic Mood-Congruent Amygdala Responses to Masked Facial Expressions in Major Depression

Suslow, Thomas; Konrad, Carsten; Kugel, Harald; Rumstadt, Daniel; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Schöning, Sonja; Ohrmann, Patricia; Bauer, Jochen; Pyka, Martin; Kersting, Anette; Arolt, Volker; Heindel, Walter; Dannlowski, Udo

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.07.023

Cited by 288 publications

(223 citation statements)

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“…Yet other studies have observed no differences between MDD patients and controls in amygdala reactivity for sad expressions (Almeida et al, 2010;Townsend et al, 2010). For positive expressions, the opposite finding of reduced amygdala activation in MDD has been reported (Stuhrmann et al, 2012;Suslow et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…A number of fMRI studies have reported amygdala hyper-reactivity in response to negative emotional faces in MDD overall relative to controls under both supraliminal (Peluso et al, 2009;Surguladze et al, 2005;Fu et al, 2004;Zhong et al, 2011) and subliminal (Sheline et al, 2001;Victor et al, 2010;Stuhrmann et al, 2012;Suslow et al, 2010) (for meta-analysis see the study by Hamilton et al (2012); for review see the studies by Browning et al (2010);Jaworska et al (2014)). These studies have typically reported on medicated patients, who by virtue of still meeting criteria for the disorder while on medication are likely non-responders.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Amygdala Reactivity to Emotional Faces in the Prediction of General and Medication-Specific Responses to Antidepressant Treatment in the Randomized iSPOT-D Trial

Williams

Korgaonkar

Song

et al. 2015

Neuropsychopharmacol

162

123

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Although the cost of poor treatment outcomes of depression is staggering, we do not yet have clinically useful methods for selecting the most effective antidepressant for each depressed person. Emotional brain activation is altered in major depressive disorder (MDD) and implicated in treatment response. Identifying which aspects of emotional brain activation are predictive of general and specific responses to antidepressants may help clinicians and patients when making treatment decisions. We examined whether amygdala activation probed by emotion stimuli is a general or differential predictor of response to three commonly prescribed antidepressants, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A test-retest design was used to assess patients with MDD in an academic setting as part of the International Study to Predict Optimized Treatment in Depression. A total of 80 MDD outpatients were scanned prior to treatment and 8 weeks after randomization to the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors escitalopram and sertraline and the serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, venlafaxine-extended release (XR). A total of 34 matched controls were scanned at the same timepoints. We quantified the blood oxygen level-dependent signal of the amygdala during subliminal and supraliminal viewing of facial expressions of emotion. Response to treatment was defined by ⩾ 50% symptom improvement on the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Pre-treatment amygdala hypo-reactivity to subliminal happy and threat was a general predictor of treatment response, regardless of medication type (Cohen's d effect size 0.63 to 0.77; classification accuracy, 75%). Responders showed hypo-reactivity compared to controls at baseline, and an increase toward 'normalization' post-treatment. Pre-treatment amygdala reactivity to subliminal sadness was a differential moderator of non-response to venlafaxine-XR (Cohen's d effect size 1.5; classification accuracy, 81%). Non-responders to venlafaxine-XR showed pre-treatment hyperreactivity, which progressed to hypo-reactivity rather than normalization post-treatment, and hypo-reactivity post-treatment was abnormal compared to controls. Impaired amygdala activation has not previously been highlighted in the general vs differential prediction of antidepressant outcomes. Amygdala hypo-reactivity to emotions signaling reward and threat predicts the general capacity to respond to antidepressants. Amygdala hyper-reactivity to sad emotion is involved in a specific non-response to a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. The findings suggest amygdala probes may help inform the personal selection of antidepressant treatments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amygdala Reactivity to Emotional Faces in the Prediction of General and Medication-Specific Responses to Antidepressant Treatment in the Randomized iSPOT-D Trial

Williams

Korgaonkar

Song

et al. 2015

Neuropsychopharmacol

162

123

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“…Subjects who score high on HA describe themselves as fearful, pessimistic, shy, and fatigued, and they have a tendency to respond intensely to signals of aversive stimuli, whereas those scoring low on HA characterize themselves as optimistic and outgoing risk-takers [12]. Amygdala 'hyperactivity' in affective disorders is commonly found and in depressed patients increases in amygdala activity have been reported to be lateralized to the left [14] (however, see [37]). …”

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confidence: 99%

Passively viewing negatively valenced baby faces attenuates left amygdala activity in healthy females scoring high on ‘Harm Avoidance’

Baeken

Schuerbeek²,

Raedt

et al. 2010

Neuroscience Letters

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The amygdalae play an important role in the evaluation and processing of emotionally salient visual stimuli. However, individual differences in personality traits, such as Harm Avoidance (HA), have been reported to influence emotional amygdalae responses. To trigger strong approach and withdrawal-related emotions in 'never depressed' young female subjects under fMRI, we presented them with blocks of happy 'healthy' baby faces and baby faces disfigured by severe dermatological conditions and we integrated the temperament dimension HA into our analysis. No other instructions were given than to watch the images attentively. Only in withdrawal-related emotional experience, we observed a negative correlation between HA and left amygdala activity, suggesting that during passive viewing females scoring higher on HA 'avoid' images with highly aversive content. When investigating the amygdala's emotional role in passive viewing paradigms, personality features such as HA should be taken into account.Keywords: Approach and withdrawal-related emotions, Amygdala, fMRI, Healthy Females, Harm Avoidance 3 A number of studies, using a variety of task instructions, have investigated the role of the amygdalae in the evaluation of social cues and the processing of emotional stimuli such as 'emotional' facial expressions and gender, age, and differences in personality features have been reported to influence amygdala activity [1,40]. When introducing individual information such as personality characteristics as covariate in the analysis of 'emotional' fMRI paradigms in healthy individuals, predominantly left sided amygdala activation has been reported [11]. Increased (left-sided) amygdala activation has also been reported in 'anxiety-prone' individuals (non-clinical subjects displaying high levels of anxiety-related traits) during the processing of emotion [5]. In addition, 'emotional' brain imaging research has already demonstrated the importance of the temperament dimension Harm Avoidance (HA) [29], extracted out of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI [12]). High scorers on HA show a tendency to respond more intensely to aversive stimuli compared to low HA scorers [24]. Subjects who score high on HA describe themselves as fearful, pessimistic, shy, and fatigued, and they have a tendency to respond intensely to signals of aversive stimuli, whereas those scoring low on HA characterize themselves as optimistic and outgoing risk-takers [12]. Amygdala 'hyperactivity' in affective disorders is commonly found and in depressed patients increases in amygdala activity have been reported to be lateralized to the left [14] (however, see [37]).Paying special attention to the salient nature of the mood inducing stimuli, in this study we reinvestigate the hypothesis that individual scores on the temperament dimension HA might influence the observation of predominantly left-sided amygdala processing. We have used an adapted paradigm with baby faces as visual 'emotional' stimuli to induce approach and withdrawal-related emotions. We 4 inc...

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Section: The Role Of Amygdala Function In Depressionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…For example, whilst viewing masked facial expressions healthy participants exhibit stronger bilateral amygdala responses to happy relative to sad expressions, whereas the opposite pattern is demonstrated by MDD patients (Stuhrmann et al, 2013;Suslow et al, 2010). In comparison to healthy controls, depressed patients also demonstrate greater right amygdala activation for sad expressions (Costafreda et al, 2013;Stuhrmann et al, 2013;Suslow et al, 2010). Complementary findings have also been reported in subclinically depressed participants who, relative to never-depressed participants, show increased bilateral amygdala activation in response to negative emotional words, a neural pattern which correlates with symptom severity (Laeger et al, 2012).…”

Section: The Role Of Amygdala Function In Depressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘affect tagging and consolidation’ (ATaC) model of depression vulnerability

Harrington

Pennington

Durrant

2017

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

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Please cite this article as: Harrington, M.O., Pennington, K., Durrant, S.J., The 'Affect Tagging and Consolidation' (ATaC) Model of Depression Vulnerability, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (2017), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.nlm.2017.02.003 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. patients, suggesting that they may be vulnerability markers of major depressive disorder (MDD), rather than mere epiphenomena of the disorder. Neuroimaging studies have revealed that depression is also associated with heightened amygdala reactivity to negative emotional stimuli, which may also be a vulnerability marker for MDD. Several models have been developed to explain the respective roles of REM sleep alterations and negatively-biased amygdala activity in the pathology of MDD, however the possible interaction between these two potential risk-factors remains uncharted. This paper reviews the roles of the amygdala and REM sleep in the encoding and consolidation of negative emotional memories, respectively. We present our 'affect tagging and consolidation' (ATaC) model, which argues that increased REM sleep density and negatively-biased amygdala activity are two separate, genetically influenced risk-factors for depression which interact to promote the development of negative memory bias -a well-known cognitive vulnerability marker for depression.Predictions of the ATaC model may motivate research aimed at improving our understanding of sleep dependent memory consolidation in depression aetiology.

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Automatic Mood-Congruent Amygdala Responses to Masked Facial Expressions in Major Depression

Cited by 288 publications

References 44 publications

Amygdala Reactivity to Emotional Faces in the Prediction of General and Medication-Specific Responses to Antidepressant Treatment in the Randomized iSPOT-D Trial

Amygdala Reactivity to Emotional Faces in the Prediction of General and Medication-Specific Responses to Antidepressant Treatment in the Randomized iSPOT-D Trial

Passively viewing negatively valenced baby faces attenuates left amygdala activity in healthy females scoring high on ‘Harm Avoidance’

The ‘affect tagging and consolidation’ (ATaC) model of depression vulnerability

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