Wang Xiaoming, Cui Shaojuan, Wu Michael Shengtao, Wang Yun, Gao Qinglin, Zhou Yuan
Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2020 Aug 11;11:622. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00622. eCollection 2020.
Dysfunctional beliefs about the self are common in the development of depressive symptoms, but it remains unclear how depressed patients respond to unfair treatment, both dispositionally and neurally. The present research is an attempt to explore the differences in sensitivity to injustice as a victim and its neural correlates in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) versus healthy controls.
First episodic, drug-naïve patients with MDD ( = 30) and a control group ( = 30) were recruited to compare their differences in victim sensitivity. A second group of patients with MDD ( = 23) and their controls ( = 28) were recruited to replicate the findings and completed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. Spontaneous brain activity measured by fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) was used to characterize the neural correlates of victim sensitivity both in patients and in healthy controls.
Higher victim sensitivity was consistently found in patients with MDD than healthy controls in both datasets. Multiple regression analysis on the fALFF showed a significant interaction effect between diagnosis and victim sensitivity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).
The patients with MDD show higher sensitivity to injustice as a victim, which may be independent of their disease course. The MDD patients differ from healthy controls in the neural correlates of victim sensitivity. These findings shed light on the linkage between cognitive control subserved by the DLPFC and negative bias towards the self implicated by higher victim sensitivity among the depressed patients.
关于自我的功能失调信念在抑郁症状的发展中很常见，但目前尚不清楚抑郁症患者在性格和神经层面如何应对不公平待遇。本研究旨在探讨重度抑郁症（MDD）患者与健康对照者作为受害者时对不公正的敏感性差异及其神经关联。
首先招募了30名首次发作、未服用药物的MDD患者和30名对照组，比较他们在受害者敏感性方面的差异。招募了第二组23名MDD患者及其28名对照者来重复研究结果，并完成静息态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描。通过低频波动分数振幅（fALFF）测量的自发脑活动被用来表征患者和健康对照者中受害者敏感性的神经关联。
在两个数据集中，MDD患者的受害者敏感性始终高于健康对照者。对fALFF的多元回归分析显示，在右侧背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC），诊断和受害者敏感性之间存在显著的交互作用。
MDD患者作为受害者时对不公正表现出更高的敏感性，这可能与其病程无关。MDD患者在受害者敏感性的神经关联方面与健康对照者不同。这些发现揭示了DLPFC所支持的认知控制与抑郁症患者中较高的受害者敏感性所暗示的对自我的消极偏见之间的联系。
