Journal
SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 6, Issue 5-6, Pages 482-501Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2011.579800
Keywords
Depression; Approach; Withdrawal; Emotion; Amygdala; fMRI
Categories
Funding
- Medical Faculty of the RWTH Aachen University [START 609811]
- DFG [IRTG 1328]
- Human Brain Project [R01-MH074457-01A1]
- Helmholtz Initiative on Systems Biology
- National Institutes of Health [MH-60722]
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH [R01MH060722, R01MH074457] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
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Successful human interaction is based on correct recognition, interpretation, and appropriate reaction to facial affect. In depression, social skill deficits are among the most restraining symptoms leading to social withdrawal, thereby aggravating social isolation and depressive affect. Dysfunctional approach and withdrawal tendencies to emotional stimuli have been documented, but the investigation of their neural underpinnings has received limited attention. We performed an fMRI study including 15 depressive patients and 15 matched, healthy controls. All subjects performed two tasks, an implicit joystick task as well as an explicit rating task, both using happy, neutral, and angry facial expressions. Behavioral data analysis indicated a significant group effect, with depressed patients showing more withdrawal than controls. Analysis of the functional data revealed significant group effects for both tasks. Among other regions, we observed significant group differences in amygdala activation, with patients showing less response particularly during approach to happy faces. Additionally, significant correlations of amygdala activation with psychopathology emerged, suggesting that more pronounced symptoms are accompanied by stronger decreases of amygdala activation. Hence, our results demonstrate that depressed patients show dysfunctional social approach and withdrawal behavior, which in turn may aggravate the disorder by negative social interactions contributing to isolation and reinforcing cognitive biases.
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