Depressogenic self-schemas are associated with smaller regional grey matter volume in never-depressed preadolescents

Authors

Pan Liu, The University of Western Ontario
Matthew R.J. Vandemeer, The University of Western Ontario
Marc F. Joanisse, The University of Western OntarioFollow
Deanna M. Barch, Washington University in St. Louis
David J.A. Dozois, The University of Western OntarioFollow
Elizabeth P. Hayden, The University of Western OntarioFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2020

Journal

NeuroImage: Clinical

Volume

28

URL with Digital Object Identifier

10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102422

Abstract

© 2020 The Author(s) Self-referential processing (i.e., self-schemas that guide processing of self-descriptive information) emerges early in youth, with deeper encoding of negative self-descriptors and/or shallower encoding of positive self-descriptors causally linked to depression. However, the relationship between depressogenic self-schemas and brain structure is unclear. We investigated associations between self-schemas and regional grey matter volume (GMV) in 84 never-depressed preadolescents oversampled for depression risk based on maternal depression history. Self-schemas were assessed using a Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET) and regional GMV was indexed via voxel-based morphometry analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Youths’ positive self-schemas were associated with greater regional GMV within the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), while negative self-schemas were associated with smaller regional GMV within vlPFC and PCC, areas important to emotion regulation and self-referential processing. These associations remained significant after controlling for youths’ concurrent depressive symptoms. Exploratory mediation analysis suggested that adolescents’ depressogenic self-schemas may mediate associations between GMV and depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that the observed GMV variations within vlPFC and PCC may serve as neurobiological markers of depressogenic self-schemas during preadolescence.

Notes

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/)

This article was originally published as:

Liu, P., Vandemeer, M., Joanisse, M. F., Barch, D. M., Dozois, D., & Hayden, E. P. (2020). Depressogenic self-schemas are associated with smaller regional grey matter volume in never-depressed preadolescents. NeuroImage. Clinical, 28, 102422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102422

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