The British Journal of Psychiatry (2008) 192: 356-361. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.043398
© 2008 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Data supplement
Right arrow Submit an eLetter
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in BJP
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mannie, Z. N.
Right arrow Articles by Cowen, P. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mannie, Z. N.
Right arrow Articles by Cowen, P. J.

Affective modulation of anterior cingulate cortex in young people at increased familial risk of depression

Zola N. Mannie, MSc, Ray Norbury, PhD, Susannah E. Murphy, MSc, Becky Inkster, PhD, Catherine J. Harmer, PhD and Philip J. Cowen, FRCPsych

University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK

Correspondence: Professor PJ Cowen, Neurosciences Building, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK Email: phil.cowen{at}psych.ox.ac.uk

Declaration of interest

None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgement.

Background

We previously found that children of parents with depression showed impaired performance on a task of emotional categorisation.

Aims

To test the hypothesis that children of parents with depression would show abnormal neural responses in the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region involved in the integration of emotional and cognitive information.

Method

Eighteen young people (mean age 19.8 years) with no personal history of depression but with a biological parent with a history of major depression (FH+ participants) and 16 controls (mean age 19.9 years) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while completing an emotional counting Stroop task.

Results

Controls showed significant activation in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex to both positive and negative words during the emotional Stroop task. This activation was absent in FH+ participants.

Conclusions

Our findings show that people at increased familial risk of depression demonstrate impaired modulation of the anterior cingulate cortex in response to emotionally valenced stimuli.


Related articles in BJP:

Highlights of this issue
Sukhwinder S. Shergill
BJP 2008 192: A18. [Full Text]  



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Br. J. PsychiatryHome page
P. Tyrer
From the Editor's desk.
The British Journal of Psychiatry, September 1, 2009; 195(3): 280 - 280.
[Full Text] [PDF]