Background
Although recent neuroimaging and therapeutic transcranial magnetic cortex stimulation
(TMS) studies suggest imbalance between left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
(DLPFC) in major depressive disorder (MDD) the fundamental neuropsychological characterization
of left DLPFC hypoactivity and right DLPFC hyperactivity in MDD remains poorly understood.
Methods
We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate
neural activity in left and right DLPFC related to unattended (unexpected) and attended
(expected) judgment of emotions. Participating in the study were 20 medication-free
patients with MDD and 30 healthy subjects.
Results
The MDD patients showed hypoactivity in the left DLPFC during both unattended and
attended emotional judgment and hyperactivity in the right DLPFC during attended emotional
judgment. In contrast to healthy subjects, left DLPFC activity during emotional judgment
was not parametrically modulated by negative emotional valence and was inversely modulated
by positive emotional valence in MDD patients. Hyperactivity in the right DLPFC correlated
with depression severity.
Conclusions
Results demonstrate that left DLPFC hypoactivity is associated with negative emotional
judgment rather than with emotional perception or attention while right DLPFC hyperactivity
is linked to attentional modulation. Left–right DLPFC imbalance is characterized in
neuropsychological regard, which bridges the gap from resting metabolism and therapeutic
repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation effects to functional neuroanatomy of
altered emotional–cognitive interaction in MDD.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 24, 2007
Accepted:
May 16,
2007
Received in revised form:
April 19,
2007
Received:
January 30,
2007
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
