TY - JOUR
T1 - Functional brain activation to emotionally valenced faces in school-aged children with a history of preschool-onset major depression
AU - Barch, Deanna M.
AU - Gaffrey, Michael S.
AU - Botteron, Kelly N.
AU - Belden, Andrew C.
AU - Luby, Joan L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Grant numbers MH64769 (JLL) and MH090786 (JLL, DMB, KNB) from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) funded the current study. Dr. Belden's work on this manuscript was supported by a grant from the NIMH ( 1K01MH090515-01 ). The NIMH had no further role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of data; or preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. Author DMB had full access to all study data and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the data analysis.
PY - 2012/12/15
Y1 - 2012/12/15
N2 - Background: Recent research has demonstrated that clinical depression can emerge as early as the preschool period. Here, we examine brain function in children with a history of preschool-onset depression (PO-MDD) in comparison with healthy children. Methods: Participants were medication naïve school-aged children (ages 7-11) with PO-MDD (n = 22) or no psychiatric history (n = 16) followed longitudinally as part of the Preschool Depression Study. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging measures of blood oxygen level-dependent signal to examine functional brain activity in response to emotionally valenced faces (sad, fearful, angry, happy, neutral) following a negative mood induction provided to all children. Results: In categorical group comparisons, children with PO-MDD demonstrated increased activity in parietal cortex in response to sad faces but no differences in brain activity in a priori regions of interest (e.g., amygdala). However, in dimensional analyses, the severity of depression symptoms at the baseline preschool assessment predicted increased responses to sad faces in amygdala, hippocampal, parietal, and orbital frontal regions. Conclusions: School-aged children with a history of PO-MDD showed patterns of functional brain responses to emotionally evocative stimuli similar to patterns found in adults and adolescents with major depression. These patterns were most strongly related to the severity of depression during the preschool period, suggesting that the magnitude of early symptoms may be particularly important for understanding altered brain function. These findings suggest that an early episode of depression before age 6 may be associated with enduring brain change or may represent a biomarker that was present even before the preschool episode.
AB - Background: Recent research has demonstrated that clinical depression can emerge as early as the preschool period. Here, we examine brain function in children with a history of preschool-onset depression (PO-MDD) in comparison with healthy children. Methods: Participants were medication naïve school-aged children (ages 7-11) with PO-MDD (n = 22) or no psychiatric history (n = 16) followed longitudinally as part of the Preschool Depression Study. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging measures of blood oxygen level-dependent signal to examine functional brain activity in response to emotionally valenced faces (sad, fearful, angry, happy, neutral) following a negative mood induction provided to all children. Results: In categorical group comparisons, children with PO-MDD demonstrated increased activity in parietal cortex in response to sad faces but no differences in brain activity in a priori regions of interest (e.g., amygdala). However, in dimensional analyses, the severity of depression symptoms at the baseline preschool assessment predicted increased responses to sad faces in amygdala, hippocampal, parietal, and orbital frontal regions. Conclusions: School-aged children with a history of PO-MDD showed patterns of functional brain responses to emotionally evocative stimuli similar to patterns found in adults and adolescents with major depression. These patterns were most strongly related to the severity of depression during the preschool period, suggesting that the magnitude of early symptoms may be particularly important for understanding altered brain function. These findings suggest that an early episode of depression before age 6 may be associated with enduring brain change or may represent a biomarker that was present even before the preschool episode.
KW - Amygdala
KW - childhood
KW - emotional processing
KW - fMRI
KW - limbic system
KW - major depression
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84869087602&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.06.009
DO - 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.06.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 22770650
AN - SCOPUS:84869087602
SN - 0006-3223
VL - 72
SP - 1035
EP - 1042
JO - Biological Psychiatry
JF - Biological Psychiatry
IS - 12
ER -