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Depressogenic self-schemas are associated with smaller regional grey matter volume in never-depressed preadolescents
NeuroImage: Clinical
  • Pan Liu, The University of Western Ontario
  • Matthew R.J. Vandemeer, The University of Western Ontario
  • Marc F. Joanisse, The University of Western Ontario
  • Deanna M. Barch, Washington University in St. Louis
  • David J.A. Dozois, The University of Western Ontario
  • Elizabeth P. Hayden, The University of Western Ontario
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2020
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102422
Disciplines
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

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0
Citation Information
Pan Liu, Matthew R.J. Vandemeer, Marc F. Joanisse, Deanna M. Barch, et al.. "Depressogenic self-schemas are associated with smaller regional grey matter volume in never-depressed preadolescents" NeuroImage: Clinical Vol. 28 (2020)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/elizabeth-hayden/8/