Subgenual cingulum microstructure supports control of emotional conflict

Keedwell, Paul A., Doidge, Amie N., Meyer, Marcel, Lawrence, Natalia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6705-2110, Lawrence, Andrew D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6705-2110 and Jones, Derek K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4409-8049 2016. Subgenual cingulum microstructure supports control of emotional conflict. Cerebral Cortex 26 (6) , pp. 2850-2862. 10.1093/cercor/bhw030

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Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with specific difficulties in attentional disengagement from negatively valenced material. Diffusion MRI studies have demonstrated altered white matter microstructure in the subgenual cingulum bundle (CB) in individuals with MDD, though the functional significance of these alterations has not been examined formally. This study explored whether individual differences in selective attention to negatively valenced stimuli are related to interindividual differences in subgenual CB microstructure. Forty-six individuals (21 with remitted MDD, 25 never depressed) completed an emotional Stroop task, using happy and angry distractor faces overlaid by pleasant or unpleasant target words and a control gender-based Stroop task. CBs were reconstructed in 38 individuals using diffusion-weighted imaging and tractography, and mean fractional anisotropy (FA) computed for the subgenual, retrosplenial, and parahippocampal subdivisions. No significant correlations were found between FA and performance in the control gender-based Stroop task in any CB region. However, the degree of interference produced by angry face distractors on time to identify pleasant words (emotional conflict) correlated selectively with FA in the subgenual CB (r = −0.53; P = 0.01). Higher FA was associated with reduced interference, irrespective of a diagnosis of MDD, suggesting that subgenual CB microstructure is functionally relevant for regulating attentional bias toward negative interpersonal stimuli

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Additional Information:	This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license.
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	1047-3211
Funders:	Wellcome Trust
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 April 2016
Date of Acceptance:	5 January 2016
Last Modified:	07 May 2023 01:56
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/89497

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