Li Lilian Y, Grzelak Lauren N, Auerbach Randy P, Shankman Stewart A
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, USA; Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, USA.
J Psychiatr Res. 2025 Jan;181:286-293. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.11.069. Epub 2024 Nov 28.
Having a depressed first-degree relative is one of the most replicated risk factors for depression. Research on the familial transmission of depression, however, has largely ignored siblings, even though sibling relationships are commonplace and characterized by frequent and intense emotions. It has been suggested that frequent contacts in close relationships lead to similarities in emotions and cognitions over time, a process underpinned by biobehavioral synchrony. Consequently, to shed light on the neural mechanism underlying familial transmission of depression, the present study tested whether neural similarity in response to reward and loss, indexed by inter-subject correlation (ISC), was associated with major depressive disorder (MDD) diagnosis, depression symptom severity, and relationship quality in sibling pairs. Same-sex, full-sibling pairs (N = 108 pairs) with a wide range of depression severity separately completed a monetary reward task during electroencephalography acquisition. The ISC in response to reward and loss feedback was calculated using circular correlation between siblings' phase angles in delta and theta frequency bands, respectively. Significant sibling ISC to reward and loss was observed, with activity maximal at frontocentral sites. Loss-related theta, but not reward-related delta, ISC was associated with: (a) greater depression risk (both lifetime MDD diagnosis and self-reported symptom severity), but not anxiety, and (b) worse sibling relationship quality during childhood in each sibling. Findings provide initial evidence that similarities in neural responses to loss may be a result of disturbed childhood sibling relationships, which may specifically increase risk for depression during adulthood.
有一位患有抑郁症的一级亲属是抑郁症最常见的风险因素之一。然而，关于抑郁症家族遗传的研究在很大程度上忽略了兄弟姐妹，尽管兄弟姐妹关系很常见，且其特点是情感频繁且强烈。有人提出，亲密关系中的频繁接触会随着时间的推移导致情绪和认知上的相似性，这一过程由生物行为同步性所支撑。因此，为了阐明抑郁症家族遗传背后的神经机制，本研究测试了以受试者间相关性（ISC）为指标的对奖励和损失的神经反应相似性是否与重度抑郁症（MDD）诊断、抑郁症状严重程度以及兄弟姐妹对之间的关系质量相关。性别相同的全同胞对（N = 108对），抑郁严重程度范围广泛，在脑电图采集期间分别完成了一项金钱奖励任务。分别使用兄弟姐妹在δ和θ频段的相位角之间的循环相关性来计算对奖励和损失反馈的ISC。观察到兄弟姐妹对奖励和损失有显著的ISC，额叶中央部位的活动最为强烈。与损失相关的θ频段ISC（而非与奖励相关的δ频段ISC）与以下因素相关：（a）更高的抑郁风险（终生MDD诊断和自我报告的症状严重程度），但与焦虑无关，以及（b）每个兄弟姐妹童年时期更差的兄弟姐妹关系质量。研究结果提供了初步证据，表明对损失的神经反应相似性可能是童年时期兄弟姐妹关系紊乱的结果，这可能会特别增加成年后患抑郁症的风险。
