Neural correlates of ‘pessimistic’ attitude in depression

Herwig, Uwe; Brühl, Annette Beatrix; Kaffenberger, Tina; Baumgärtner, Thomas; Boeker, Heinz; Jäncke, Lutz

doi:10.1017/s0033291709991073

Cited by 54 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…On the other hand, the negative stimuli appeared to be 'expected' as no adaptive brain activity occurred. That provides neurobiological evidence for a 'pessimistic' bias in brain activation in response to events with ambiguous emotional impact, implicating that ambiguous expectation is associated with a preparation for the worse case [6].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Negative bias of processing ambiguously cued emotional stimuli

Kaffenberger¹,

Brühl

Baumgärtner³

et al. 2010

NeuroReport

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Daily we cope with upcoming potentially disadvantageous events. Therefore, it makes sense to be prepared for the worst case. Such a 'pessimistic' bias is reflected in brain activation during emotion processing. Healthy individuals underwent functional neuroimaging while viewing emotional stimuli that were earlier cued ambiguously or unambiguously concerning their emotional valence. Presentation of ambiguously announced pleasant pictures compared with unambiguously announced pleasant pictures resulted in increased activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal, premotor and temporal cortex, and in the caudate nucleus. This was not the case for the respective negative conditions. This indicates that pleasant stimuli after ambiguous cueing provided 'unexpected' emotional input, resulting in the adaptation of brain activity. It strengthens the hypothesis of a 'pessimistic' bias of brain activation toward ambiguous emotional events. AbstractWe daily cope with upcoming potentially disadvantageous events. Therefore, it makes sense to be prepared for the worst case. Such 'pessimistic' bias should be reflected in brain activation during emotion processing. Healthy subjects underwent functional neuroimaging while viewing emotional stimuli that prior were cued ambiguously or unambiguously concerning their emotional valence.Presentation of ambiguously announced pleasant pictures compared to unambiguously announced pleasant pictures resulted in increased activity in ventrolateral prefrontal, premotor and temporal cortex, and in caudate nucleus. This was not the case for the respective negative conditions. This indicates that pleasant stimuli after ambiguous cueing provided 'unexpected' emotional input, resulting in adaptation of brain activity. It strengthens the hypothesis of a `pessimistic` bias of brain activation towards ambiguous emotional events.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Negative bias of processing ambiguously cued emotional stimuli

Kaffenberger¹,

Brühl

Baumgärtner³

et al. 2010

NeuroReport

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“…Preparatory brain/body responses can also arise when anticipating an emotion eliciting event, such as while travelling to the job interview. In several studies, anticipation of adversity has been related to DLPFC (e.g., Herwig et al, 2010) and amygdala activity (Abler, Erk, Herwig, & Walter, 2007). Based on this reasoning, we would expect emotion regulation to be most adaptive if it begins as early as possible -that is, as soon as people begin to experience the emotions that arise during the anticipation of a stressful event.…”

Section: Expectancy Anticipation Proactive Control and Emotion Regumentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of expectancy and proactive control in stress regulation: A neurocognitive framework for regulation expectation

Raedt

Hooley

2016

Clinical Psychology Review

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When confronted with stressful or emotionally arousing situations, regulatory abilities should allow us to adaptively cope. However, depressed individuals often have a low sense of perceived control and are characterized by a negative expectation bias regarding their ability to deal with future stressful events. Low expectancy concerning the ability to deal with future stressful events may result in less initiation of proactive control, a crucial mechanism of cognitive control reflecting sustained and anticipatory maintenance of goal-relevant information in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to optimize cognitive performance. In this theoretical review we integrate a diverse body of literature. We argue that the expectancy of an individual's regulatory abilities prior to the presentation of an arousing event or stressful task will be related to anticipation and proactive up-or down regulation of specific neurocircuits before the actual encounter with the stressful event occurs, in a manner that can be either adaptive or maladaptive. Moreover, we discuss the important role of self-esteem as well as the ability to accept the situation when coping is not possible. Our approach has implications for a broad range of disorders and conditions in which stress regulation plays a role, and can be used to guide the use of recently developed clinical interventions, as well as to fine-tune interventions to facilitate proactive control. Cortex, stress regulation, anticipation, depression, proactive control, coping, self-esteem, When we are confronted with situations or thoughts perceived as unpleasant, aversive or threatening, a series of biological and psychological processes is activated, generating a coordinated response. This so-called stress response is triggered when an individual's well-being or health is threatened. Relational or financial problems, unpredictability, an acute threat, or a challenging situation such as a job interview are examples of stressful situations or stressors that can initiate a stress response. Regulatory abilities, which we call stress regulation, generally allow us to cope with these situations in an adaptive way. However, there are large individual differences in how well people handle life stressors. Indeed, problems with stress regulation are thought to play a central role in the development and clinical course of depression (Hooley, Orley & Teasdale, 1986;Hankin, 2008;Morris, Ciesla & Garber, 2010). It has also been suggested that, over time, depressive episodes can be triggered by progressively milder and milder stressors (Monroe & Harkness, 2005; but see also Anderson et al., 2016). Keywords: Dorsolateral PrefrontalResearch shows the important role of stress regulation in the development of different forms of psychopathology, such as depression, where psychosocial stressors are strongly implicated in the triggering of new episodes (Kendler et al., 2000).Understanding the role of stressors in depression requires consideration of the interaction between biological, cognitive ...

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“…A study of patients with major depression (Herwig et al 2010) found that activation of reward-related brain regions, namely nucleus accumbens, thalamus and insula, was decreased when patients were consciously attempting to enhance their mood state in response to positive images, suggesting impaired emotional regulation function of these regions as a result of low mood. In the present study, the HS group had higher current negative mood before the scanning session than the LS group, which may partly explain why HS individuals showed diminished neural response to positive comments.…”

Section: Decreased Activation Of a Reward-processing Network In The Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural processing of criticism and positive comments from relatives in individuals with schizotypal personality traits

Premkumar

Williams

Lythgoe

et al. 2011

The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry

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Objectives . High negative expressed emotion by family members towards schizophrenia patients increases the risk of subsequent relapse. The study aimed to determine whether individuals with high schizotypy (HS) and low schizotypy (LS) would differ in activation of brain areas involved in cognitive control when listening to relative criticism. Methods . Twelve HS and 12 LS individuals listened to relative ' s critical, positive and neutral comments about them while undergoing functional MRI. Activation maps in the two groups during the comments were compared using SPM5. Results . The left superior frontal and middle frontal gyri and bilateral posterior cingulate cortex were activated during criticism, compared to neutral comments, across all participants. While there were no group differences in brain activity for criticism versus neutral comments, the HS group, who had lower current mood relative to the LS group, activated to a lesser extent the thalamus, insula, putamen and brain stem during positive, compared to neutral, comments. Conclusions . Listening to relative criticism in healthy individuals engages brain areas for cognitive control of negative emotion and self-referential processing. However, HS individuals may have an attenuated ability to respond to rewarding aspects of positive comments due to their lower current mood.

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Neural correlates of ‘pessimistic’ attitude in depression

Cited by 54 publications

References 64 publications

Negative bias of processing ambiguously cued emotional stimuli

Negative bias of processing ambiguously cued emotional stimuli

The role of expectancy and proactive control in stress regulation: A neurocognitive framework for regulation expectation

Neural processing of criticism and positive comments from relatives in individuals with schizotypal personality traits

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