Maternal depression, child temperament, and early life stress predict never-depressed preadolescents’ functional connectivity during a negative mood induction

A better understanding of the development of depression can inform etiology and prevention/intervention. Maternal depression and maladaptive temperamental emotionality (e.g., low positive emotionality [PE] or high negative emotionality, especially sadness) are known to predict depression. While it is unclear how these risks cause depression, altered functional connectivity (FC), particularly during negative emotion processing, may play an important role. We investigated whether maternal depression and age-three emotionality predicted FC during negative mood reactivity in never-depressed preadolescents, and whether these predictive relationships were augmented by early life stress. Maternal depression was associated with decreased mPFC-amygdala and mPFC-insula FC, but increased mPFC-PCC FC. PE was associated with increased dlPFC-amygdala FC while sadness was related to increased PCC-based FC in insula, OFC, and ACC. Further, sadness was more strongly associated with PCC-insula and PCC-ACC FC as early stress increased. Findings indicate that early depression risks may be mediated by FC underlying negative emotion processing.

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Maternal Depression, Child Temperament, and Early-Life Stress Predict Never-Depressed Preadolescents’ Functional Connectivity During a Negative-Mood Induction

Clinical Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/21677026211016419 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 216770262110164

Author(s):

Pan Liu ◽

Matthew R. J. Vandermeer ◽

Ola Mohamed Ali ◽

Andrew R. Daoust ◽

Marc F. Joanisse ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Maternal Depression ◽

Life Stress ◽

Early Life ◽

Negative Emotion ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Emotion Processing ◽

Early Life Stress ◽

Cingulate Cortex

Understanding the development of depression can inform etiology and prevention/intervention. Maternal depression and maladaptive patterns of temperament (e.g., low positive emotionality [PE] or high negative emotionality, especially sadness) are known to predict depression. Although it is unclear how these risks cause depression, altered functional connectivity (FC) during negative-emotion processing may play an important role. We investigated whether maternal depression and age-3 emotionality predicted FC during negative mood reactivity in never-depressed preadolescents and whether these relationships were augmented by early-life stress. Maternal depression predicted decreased medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)–amygdala and mPFC–insula FC but increased mPFC–posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) FC. PE predicted increased dorsolateral prefrontal cortex–amygdala FC, whereas sadness predicted increased PCC-based FC in insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Sadness was more strongly associated with PCC–insula and PCC–ACC FC as early stress increased. Findings indicate that early depression risks may be mediated by FC underlying negative-emotion processing.

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Automaticity as a Vulnerability to Depression: Daily Mood-Reactive Rumination and Early-Life Stress in People With- and Without Depression History

10.31234/osf.io/n3dah ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kristján Helgi Hjartarson ◽

Ivar Snorrason ◽

Laura Francina Bringmann ◽

Ragnar P. Ólafsson

Keyword(s):

Negative Affect ◽

Life Stress ◽

Early Life ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Early Life Stress ◽

Conscious Awareness ◽

Depression Vulnerability ◽

Negative Thinking ◽

History Of ◽

Mood Reactivity

Depressive rumination has been conceptualized as a mental habit that is initiated automatically without conscious awareness, intent or control in response to negative mood. However, it is unknown whether depression vulnerability is characterized by elevated levels of mood-reactive rumination at the level of short-term dynamics. Using mobile ecological momentary assessment, formerly depressed individuals with a recurrent history of depression (n = 94) and non-clinical controls (n = 55) recorded in-the-moment affect and rumination ten times daily over six days, after completing measures of trait ruminative brooding, early-life stress, and habitual characteristics of negative thinking (e.g., automaticity, lack of conscious awareness, intent, and control). Momentary fluctuations in negative affect were prospectively associated with greater rumination at the next sampling occasion in formerly depressed participants whereas this pattern was not observed in non-clinical controls. In formerly depressed participants, the degree of mood-reactivity was moderated by habitual characteristics of negative thinking, which interacted with a history of early-life stress in predicting greater mood-reactive rumination. It was not, however, associated with depression course nor with the frequency of trait ruminative brooding. Mood-reactive rumination may be a vulnerability marker for depression, triggered in response to negative affect with a high degree of automaticity, making it difficult to control. It might constitute a risk independent of the depressive course and originate in early-life stress. Future studies may need to go beyond frequency and target the mood-reactivity and automaticity of ruminative thinking to reduce depression vulnerability

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