Guilt-Selective Functional Disconnection of Anterior Temporal and Subgenual Cortices in Major Depressive Disorder

Green, Sophie M.; Ralph, Matthew A. Lambon; Moll, Jorge; Deakin, Bill; Zahn, Roland

doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.135

Cited by 81 publications

(163 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

149

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This study could be the basis for examining these self-referential emotions in patients in which these emotions are less controllable and more influential on everyday life, such as patients suffering from a depressive or (hypo)manic mood episode, in continuation of the pioneering study by Green et al [104]. Such studies could help in identifying the neurobiological differences between well-contained and rather helpful self-referential emotions in healthy subjects and their sometimes overwhelming and destructive counterparts in mental disorders, and perhaps in developing strategies assisting in the treatment of these disorders.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Brain Activation Associated with Pride and Shame

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Self-referential emotions such as shame/guilt and pride provide evaluative information about persons themselves. In addition to emotional aspects, social and self-referential processes play a role in self-referential emotions. Prior studies have rather focused on comparing self-referential and other-referential processes of one valence, triggered mostly by external stimuli. In the current study, we aimed at investigating the valence-specific neural correlates of shame/guilt and pride, evoked by the remembrance of a corresponding autobiographical event during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Method: A total of 25 healthy volunteers were studied. The task comprised a negative (shame/guilt), a positive (pride) and a neutral condition (expecting the distractor). Each condition was initiated by a simple cue, followed by the remembrance and finished by a distracting picture. Results: Pride and shame/guilt conditions both activated typical emotion-processing circuits including the amygdala, insula and ventral striatum, as well as self-referential brain regions such as the bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Comparing the two emotional conditions, emotion-processing circuits were more activated by pride than by shame, possibly due to either hedonic experiences or stronger involvement of the participants in positive self-referential emotions due to a self-positivity bias. However, the ventral striatum was similarly activated by pride and shame/guilt. In the whole-brain analysis, both self-referential emotion conditions activated medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate regions, corresponding to the self-referential aspect and the autobiographical evocation of the respective emotions. Conclusion: Autobiographically evoked self-referential emotions activated basic emotional as well as self-referential circuits. Except for the ventral striatum, emotional circuits were more active with pride than with shame.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Brain Activation Associated with Pride and Shame

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, baseline overactivity in regions associated with emotion may relate to activated but unprocessed emotions that are brought to consciousness during PDT [14,15,21,22]. In depression, posttreatment reduction in regional activity in the subgenual ACC - an area associated with guilt [26], self-defeat [27] and repression of emotions [28] - may reflect overcoming of repression of emotions and reduction in unconscious guilt, thus resulting in a better relationship with oneself and antidepressant effects [14]. In borderline personality disorder cases, improvement in dorsolateral prefrontal cortical function may reflect a transition to more mature defenses with PDT [16].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Neuroimaging Studies

Abbass

Nowoweiski²,

Bernier³

et al. 2014

Psychother Psychosom

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The clinical efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy (PDT) has undergone extensive study and review. Recently, researchers have studied the effects of this treatment on brain metabolic or synaptic activity, but the collective findings have never been reviewed. The objective of this review was to describe the findings of all neuroimaging studies of any form of PDT treatment. An extensive literature search through databases along with surveying of research groups were undertaken to acquire all available published studies. Eleven series were included in the final sample, consisting of 2 randomized controlled trials, 5 controlled trials and 4 case series, altogether involving 210 people: 94 healthy controls and 116 people with mood disorders, panic disorder, somatoform disorders and borderline personality disorder. A variety of neuroimaging techniques were used to examine regional metabolic activity and synaptic neurotransmission before and after treatment. The common finding was normalization of synaptic or metabolic activity in limbic, midbrain and prefrontal regions, occurring in association with improved clinical outcomes. PDT has demonstrable effects on brain function in diverse clinical populations as evidenced by a modest group of mixed neuroimaging studies.

show abstract

“…Frontopolar activations were found most reproducibly for guilt while using different control conditions (other-critical feelings such as indignation Zahn et al, 2009c); anger toward self (Kedia et al, 2008); embarrassment (Takahashi et al, 2004); regret with no consequences for others (Morey et al, 2012); and sadness (Basile et al, 2011)). The subgenual cingulate cortex (including the posteriorly adjacent septal area in some studies) was found to be selectively activated for guilt compared with indignation toward others, but only when modeling individual variability in empathic concern (Zahn et al, 2009a), or guilt-proneness (Zahn et al, 2009c;Green et al, 2012). Interestingly, subgenual cingulate activations for guilt were independently reproduced (Morey et al, 2012;Basile et al, 2011).…”

Section: Guiltmentioning

confidence: 98%