Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China; Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
Laboratory of Cognition and Mental Health, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing 402160, China.
Psychiatry Res. 2015 Jun 30;232(3):257-63. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.03.002. Epub 2015 Mar 14.
Previous behavioral studies have examined the correlation between personality and depression, and between negative automatic thoughts and depression. Little is known, however, about the relationships among these three factors. Even less is known about how variations in brain structure are related to negative automatic thoughts, which are thought to mediate the association between personality traits and depressive symptoms. A total of 298 healthy participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging and completed the following questionnaires: a Neuroticism scale, the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ), and the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). We first investigated the relationships among the three questionnaires and found that the ATQ was a mediator between the Neuroticism scale and the SDS. Then, we investigated the neuroanatomical correlates of the ATQ in the participants using voxel-based morphometry. We found that the ATQ was significantly positively correlated with the gray matter volume of the parahippocampal gyrus (PHG). Structural Equation Modeling revealed that negative automatic thoughts mediated the relationship between the GMV of the parahippocampal gyrus and depression. Moreover, the interaction between parahippocampal gyrus volume and neuroticism predicted automatic thoughts. These findings highlight that negative automatic thoughts might be a good predictor of depression outcome.
先前的行为研究考察了人格与抑郁之间、负性自动思维与抑郁之间的相关性。然而，人们对这三个因素之间的关系知之甚少。更不知道大脑结构的变化与负性自动思维有何关系，因为人们认为负性自动思维是人格特质与抑郁症状之间关联的中介。共有 298 名健康参与者接受了磁共振成像和以下问卷的测试：神经质量表、自动思维问卷 (ATQ) 和自评抑郁量表 (SDS)。我们首先调查了这三个问卷之间的关系，发现 ATQ 是神经质量表和 SDS 之间的中介。然后，我们使用基于体素的形态计量学方法研究了参与者中 ATQ 的神经解剖学相关性。我们发现，ATQ 与海马旁回的灰质体积呈显著正相关。结构方程模型显示，负性自动思维中介了海马旁回体积与抑郁之间的关系。此外，海马旁回体积和神经质之间的相互作用预测了自动思维。这些发现强调了负性自动思维可能是抑郁结果的一个很好的预测指标。
