Poster abstracts

Poster number 17 submitted by Athena L. Biggs

When 'Believe in Yourself' Isn't Enough: Increased Ambivalence during Self-evaluation in Depression

Athena L. Biggs (Neuroscience Program, The Ohio State University), Jay C. Fournier (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, The Ohio State University)

Abstract:
Background: Negatively biased self-evaluations are common in depression, but why self-evaluations become dysfunctional is unknown. Accordingly, we set out to test if the way the brain processes self-related beliefs—rather than the content—is itself disrupted in depression. We looked at whether the strength of an individual’s self-beliefs is compromised in depression, and if key self-processing regions of the brain are associated with this altered belief strength.

Methods: We fMRI-scanned a Healthy Control (HC, n=48) and a Currently Depressed (CD, n=80) group while rating how much they believed statements from the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (a set of common thoughts experienced in everyday life) were true of themselves or a famous “other”. We analyzed the strength of their belief (belief strength, e.g., How much do you believe this about yourself, from 1=Not at all to 5=Completely?) and reaction times. We used behavioral belief strength to analyze neural activation in brain regions known to be disrupted in depression: medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), Insula, Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), Precuneus, superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). 

Results: Compared to HC, DP demonstrated drastically weaker beliefs in themselves than controls (F(1,153.8) = 130.24, p<0.001), and, when they did espouse strong self-beliefs, they were slower to make those strong-belief evaluations (F(1,169.7) = 26.969, p<0.001. Additionally, these altered beliefs were associated with decreased activation in the MPFC, Insula, and SFG during self-evaluation in depressed individuals (MPFC: F(1,252) = 4.15, p=0.043; Insula: F(1,252) =5.62, p=0.018; SFG: F(1,252) = 6.10, p=0.014)

Conclusions: Individuals with depression demonstrate weakened self-beliefs and are slower to endorse strong self-beliefs. Additionally, key self-processing brain regions show decreased activation during self-evaluation in depression, which is associated with these weakened beliefs.

Keywords: Depression, Self-Related Beliefs, fMRI