Disrupted engagement of networks supporting hot and cold cognition in remitted major depressive disorder

Abstract

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by dysfunction in cognitive and emotional systems. However, the neural network correlates of cognitive control (cold cognition) and emotion processing (hot cognition) during the remitted state of MDD (rMDD) remain unclear and not fully probed, which has important implications for identifying intermediate phenotypes of depression risk.

Methods: 43 young adults with rMDD and 33 healthy controls (HCs) underwent fMRI while completing separate tasks of cold cognition (Parametric Go/No-Go test) and hot cognition (Facial Emotion Processing Test). Two 2 group (rMDD, HC) × 2 event (sad/fearful faces, correct rejections) factorial models of activation were calculated in SPM8. Functional activation was evaluated in the salience and emotional network (SEN) and the cognitive control network (CCN), including hypothesized interaction between group and task within the CCN.

Results: Individuals with rMDD demonstrated greater spatial extent of suprathreshold activation within the SEN during sad faces relative to HCs. There were several regions within the CCN in which HCs showed greater activation than rMDD during correct rejections of lures, whereas individuals with rMDD showed greater activation than HCs during sad or fearful faces.

Limitations: Results were not directly compared with active MDD.

Conclusions: These results provide evidence of deficient CCN engagement during cognitive control in rMDD (dysfunctional cold cognition). Elevated SEN activation during sad faces could represent heightened salience of negative emotional faces in rMDD; elevated CCN activation during emotional faces in rMDD could represent compensatory regulatory control. These group differences may represent vulnerability factors, scars of prior depressive episodes, or processes maintaining wellness.

Keywords: Cognition; Cognitive control; Emotion; Major depressive disorder; Sadness; fMRI.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Figures

Figure 1

Spatial map of main effect of group within the cognitive control network (CCN) for factorial models of fearful faces and rejections, and sad faces and rejections (Panel A: sagittal view; Panel B: axial view).

Figure 2

Axial views of group x condition interactions within the cognitive control network (CCN) and the salience and emotional network (SEN) in models of sad faces and rejections (panel A), and fearful faces and rejections (panel B), along with bar graphs representing degree of activation in these CCN regions by group and condition in sad faces and rejections model (panel C), and fearful faces and rejections model (panel D).

Figure 3

Extent of spatial activation within (a) the cognitive control network (CCN) and (b) the salience and emotional network (SEN) in healthy control individuals (HC) and individuals with remitted major depressive disorder (rMDD) during sad faces, fearful faces, and correct rejection trials.

Figure 4

Spatial map of activation within salience and emotional network (panels A, B) and cognitive control network (panels C, D) in healthy control individuals (HC) and individuals with remitted major depressive disorder (rMDD) during sad faces.