ABSTRACT
Objective: The present study is devoted to the study of brain activation using fMRI in patients with depression (after acute coronary syndrome and somatically healthy) and in healthy volunteers. Method : The study enrolled a total of 51 patients: 11 with depression after acute coronary syndrome, 16 with primary depressive episode and recurrent depression without prior coronary event, and 24 with ACS without depression. The groups were matched by sex and age. The emotional information processing was evaluated with the Pennsylvania Test of Emotion Recognition. All patients underwent fMRI at the time of this test. The data processing was performed with SPM12 and xjView applications. Results: During the processing of emotional information in the depressed patients after ACS, specific activation zones in the frontal cortex (P < 0.001), right fusiform gyrus (P < 0.001), and right insular lobe were identified (P = 0.017). In the patients with primary depressive episode and recurrent depression without ACS, certain zones of activation were identified in frontal cortex (P < 0.001; 0.001), left fusiform gyrus (P < 0.001), occipital cortex (P < 0.001). In the patients who had ACS, without depression, some zones of activation were specified in the right middle occipital gyrus (P < 0.001), the right superior frontal gyrus (P = 0.088), and the putamen projection on the right (P < 0.001) and on the left (P = 0.009), as well as the left insular lobe (P = 0.015). Conclusion: The pathogenesis of depression is significantly associated with the peculiarities of processing emotionally significant information, regardless of the conditions under which it develops.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The present study evaluated the cortical activation during emotional information recognition. METHODS: The study group included 16 patients with depression, and 16 healthy subjects were enrolled as a control group. Patients received eight weeks of antidepressant therapy. Functional MRI evaluated the cortical activation twice in the patient group and once in the control group. The fMRI task processed the emotional information with face demonstration from the PennCNP test battery. RESULTS: During the processing of emotional information, patients showed activation in the middle and the inferior frontal gyri, the fusiform gyrus, and the occipital cortex. After treatment, patients showed a significant decrease in the frontal cortex activation for negative face demonstration and no frontal activation for positive emotion recognition. The left superior temporal gyrus activation zone appeared in patients after treatment and in the control group. Healthy subjects showed more intense frontal cortex activation when processing neutral emotions and less when showing happy and sad faces. Activation zones in the amygdala and the insula and deactivation zones in the posterior cingulate cortex were revealed in the controls. CONCLUSION: This study confirms the hypothesis that anomalies in the processing of emotional stimuli can be a sign of a depressive disorder.
