Disrupted amygdala-prefrontal connectivity during emotion regulation links stress-reactive rumination and adolescent depressive symptoms

Abstract

Rumination in response to stress (stress-reactive rumination) has been linked to higher levels of depressive symptoms in adolescents. However, no work to date has examined the neural mechanisms connecting stress-reactive rumination and adolescent depressive symptoms. The present work attempted to bridge this gap through an fMRI study of 41 adolescent girls (M_age=15.42, SD=0.33) - a population in whom elevated levels of depressive symptoms, rumination, and social stress sensitivity are displayed. During the scan, participants completed two tasks: an emotion regulation task and a social stress task. Using psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses, we found that positive functional connectivity between the amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) during the emotion regulation task mediated the association between stress-reactive rumination and depressive symptoms. These results suggest that stress-reactive rumination may interfere with the expression and development of neural connectivity patterns associated with effective emotion regulation, which may contribute, in turn, to heightened depressive symptoms.

Keywords: Adolescence; Depressive symptoms; Functional connectivity; Stress-reactive rumination; fMRI.

Fig. 1

Example of (a) Observation and (b) Labeling conditions of the emotion regulation task.

Fig. 2

Correlation between stress-reactive rumination and depressive symptoms. Blue line represents best fit. Dotted lines represent 95% confidence interval. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 3

Association between amygdala-VLPFC connectivity and stress-reactive rumination. For descriptive purposes, parameter estimates were extracted from the cluster that showed significant amygdala-VLPFC connectivity, and the association with stress-reactive rumination was plotted. Blue line represents best fit. Dotted lines represent 95% confidence interval. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 4

Association between depressive symptoms and amygdala-VLPFC connectivity. For descriptive purposes, parameter estimates were extracted from the cluster that showed significant amygdala-VLPFC connectivity and the association with depressive symptoms was plotted. Blue line represents best fit. Dotted lines represent 95% confidence interval. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)