Age and Gender Modulate the Neural Circuitry Supporting Facial Emotion Processing in Adults with Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

Objectives Emotion processing, supported by fronto-limbic circuitry known to be sensitive to the effects of aging, is a relatively understudied cognitive-emotional domain in geriatric depression. Some evidence suggests that the neurophysiological disruption observed in emotion processing among adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) may be modulated by both gender and age. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of gender and age on the neural circuitry supporting emotion processing in MDD. Design Cross-sectional comparison of fMRI signal during performance of an emotion processing task. Setting Outpatient university setting. Participants One hundred adults recruited by MDD status, gender, and age. Measurements Participants underwent fMRI while completing the Facial Emotion Perception Test (FEPT). They viewed photographs of faces and categorized the emotion perceived. Contrast for fMRI was of face perception minus animal identification blocks. Results Effects of depression were observed in precuneus and effects of age in a number of fronto-limbic regions. Three-way interactions were present between MDD status, gender, and age in regions pertinent to emotion processing, including frontal, limbic and basal ganglia. Young women with MDD and older men with MDD exhibited hyperactivation in these regions compared to their respective same-gender healthy comparison (HC) counterparts. In contrast, older women and younger men with MDD exhibited hypoactivation compared to their respective same-gender HC counterparts. Conclusions This the first study to report gender- and age-specific differences in emotion processing circuitry in MDD. Gender-differential mechanisms may underlie cognitive-emotional disruption in older adults with MDD. The present findings have implications for improved probes into the heterogeneity of the MDD syndrome.

Face-n-Food: Gender Differences in Tuning to Faces

“…Preterm born children are also reported to experience difficulties in face processing [ 63 , 64 ], but gender impact on different aspects of face perception and other components of visual social cognition is largely unknown. As indicated by fMRI, during facial emotional categorization young females with major depressive disorder, MDD, exhibit hyperactivation, whereas young males display hypoactivation in the precuneous brain area [ 65 ]. Several aspects of face processing are also deficient in social anxiety [ 66 ].…”

Sex and gender affect the social brain: Beyond simplicity

“…Preterm born children have been reported to experience difficulties in face processing (see, e.g., Fazzi et al, ; Freie et al, ; for review see Pavlova and Krägeloh‐Mann, ), but gender impact on different aspects of face perception and other components of visual social cognition in survivors of preterm birth is largely unknown. Several aspects of face processing are compromised in females with major depressive disorder (MDD; Arrais et al, ; Briceño et al, ). During facial emotional categorization, young females with MDD exhibit hyperactivation, whereas young males display hypoactivation in the precuneous brain area, as indicated by fMRI (Briceño et al, ).…”

“…Several aspects of face processing are compromised in females with major depressive disorder (MDD; Arrais et al, ; Briceño et al, ). During facial emotional categorization, young females with MDD exhibit hyperactivation, whereas young males display hypoactivation in the precuneous brain area, as indicated by fMRI (Briceño et al, ). Several aspects of face processing are also deficient in social anxiety (Gilboa‐Schechtman and Shachar‐Lavie, ).…”

Sex differences in major depression and comorbidity of cardiometabolic disorders: impact of prenatal stress and immune exposures

“…Although the incidence of sex differences in MDD has been known for many years, even recent studies of brain circuitry and genes associated with mood dysregulation and MDD per se do not design studies to investigate sex effects nor incorporate even current sex-dependent knowledge into development of therapeutics. MDD is associated with abnormalities in stress response circuitry, i.e., brain circuitry regulating the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis [23][24][25][26][27][28], including hypothalamus (HYPO), amygdala (AMYG), hippocampus (HIPP), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and ventromedial prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices (vmPFC, OFC) [26,27,[29][30][31][32], areas that are among the most sexually dimorphic in the brain, i.e., areas that develop in sexdependent ways and function differently across the lifespan. HIPP, HYPO, AMYG, and PFC are dense in sex steroid and glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) [33][34][35] coupled with cytokine receptors [36][37][38][39], in particular, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, the major co-activators of the HPA axis [36,37,40,41].…”