Verhallen Anne M, Renken Remco J, Marsman Jan-Bernard C, Ter Horst Gert J
Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2021 Apr 9;15:657264. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.657264. eCollection 2021.
Experiencing stress can have a disadvantageous effect on mental well-being. Additional to the relation between suffering from chronic stress and depression, both stress (acute and chronic) and depression are associated with cognitive alterations, including working memory. The breakup of a relationship is considered to be a stressful event that can lead to symptoms of depression in otherwise healthy people. Additional to elevated depression scores, stress-related cognitive alterations may occur in this population as well. Therefore, in the present fMRI study we investigated whether experiencing a relationship breakup is associated with working memory alterations and whether this is related to depressive symptom severity. A three workload version of the -back task (0-back, 1-back, 2-back) was used to measure working memory in subjects who experienced a breakup in the preceding 6 months ("heartbreak group", = 70) and subjects in a romantic relationship ("relationship group", = 46). Behavioral task performance was compared between the two groups. Functional MRI scans were analyzed using General Linear Model (GLM) activation analyses. Workload conditions were contrasted to each other and to baseline and group differences were assessed. To investigate whether brain networks are associated with depressive symptom severity within the heartbreak group specifically, a feature-based Independent Component Analysis was performed on the 2-back > 0-back contrast images to identify brain regions that covaried across subjects. Behaviorally, the heartbreak group performed similar at high workload (i.e., 2-back) and better at moderate workload (i.e., 1-back) than the relationship group. GLM analysis revealed an interaction between group and 2-back > 0-back, 2-back > 1-back and 2-back > baseline; the heartbreak group showed less precuneus activation compared to the relationship group. Furthermore, within the heartbreak group, we found a negative association between depressive symptom severity and a brain network representing mostly the precuneus, anterior cingulate gyrus and supplementary motor cortex. Our findings suggest that the effect of a breakup is accompanied by workload-dependent working memory alterations. Therefore, we propose that this population can potentially be used to investigate the interplay between stress, cognitive functioning and depression.
经历压力会对心理健康产生不利影响。除了慢性压力与抑郁症之间的关系外，压力（急性和慢性）和抑郁症都与认知改变有关，包括工作记忆。人际关系的破裂被认为是一种压力事件，可导致原本健康的人出现抑郁症状。除了抑郁得分升高外，该人群也可能出现与压力相关的认知改变。因此，在本功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究中，我们调查了经历人际关系破裂是否与工作记忆改变有关，以及这是否与抑郁症状严重程度相关。使用 - 回溯任务的三种工作量版本（0 - 回溯、1 - 回溯、2 - 回溯）来测量在过去6个月内经历过关系破裂的受试者（“心碎组”，n = 70）和处于恋爱关系中的受试者（“恋爱关系组”，n = 46）的工作记忆。比较了两组的行为任务表现。使用一般线性模型（GLM）激活分析对功能磁共振成像扫描进行分析。将工作量条件相互对比以及与基线对比，并评估组间差异。为了专门研究心碎组内心脑网络是否与抑郁症状严重程度相关，对2 - 回溯> 0 - 回溯对比图像进行了基于特征的独立成分分析，以识别受试者间协变的脑区。在行为上，心碎组在高工作量（即2 - 回溯）时表现与恋爱关系组相似，在中等工作量（即1 - 回溯）时表现优于恋爱关系组。GLM分析显示组与2 - 回溯> 0 - 回溯、2 - 回溯> 1 - 回溯以及2 - 回溯>基线之间存在交互作用；与恋爱关系组相比，心碎组的楔前叶激活较少。此外，在心碎组内我们发现抑郁症状严重程度与一个主要代表楔前叶、前扣带回和辅助运动皮层的脑网络之间存在负相关。我们的研究结果表明，关系破裂的影响伴随着与工作量相关的工作记忆改变。因此，我们建议该人群可潜在地用于研究压力、认知功能和抑郁症之间的相互作用。
