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Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access originally published online on March 23, 2009
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2009 4(3):305-312; doi:10.1093/scan/nsp008
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

In search of the depressive self: extended medial prefrontal network during self-referential processing in major depression

Cédric Lemogne1,2,3, Guillaume le Bastard4,5, Helen Mayberg6, Emmanuelle Volle5,7, Loretxu Bergouignan1,5, Stéphane Lehéricy5,7,8,9, Jean-François Allilaire1,4,5 and Philippe Fossati1,4,5

1CNRS USR 3246, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 2Paris Descartes University, 3Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Department of C-L Psychiatry, European Georges Pompidou Hospital, 4Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Department of Psychiatry, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 5Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris, France, 6Department of Psychiatry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA, 7INSERM U610, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 8Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Department of Neuroradiology, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, and 9Center for NeuroImaging Research, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France

Major depression is associated with an excessive self-focus, a tendency to engage oneself in self-referential processing. The medial frontal gyrus (MFG) is central to self-referential processing. This study aimed to explore the neural bases of this excessive self-focus and to disambiguate the role of the MFG in the pathophysiology of major depression. We presented 15 depressed patients and 15 healthy subjects with personality traits during functional magnetic resonance imaging and asked them to judge whether each trait described them (‘self’ condition) or a generally desirable trait (‘general’ condition). Both patients and healthy subjects activated the MFG in ‘self’ vs ‘general’ condition. However, the activation of the dorsal part of the MFG and of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in ‘self’ vs ‘general’ condition was unique to patients. Additionally, patients displayed an increased functional connectivity between the MFG, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the DLPFC. These results provide evidence for an extended medial prefrontal network during self-referential processing in major depression, suggesting the involvement of a greater cognitive control.

Keywords: depression; emotion; mood; prefrontal cortex; self

Correspondence should be addressed to Cédric Lemogne, MD, CNRS USR 3246, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 47 bd de l’hôpital, 75013 Paris, France. E-mail: cedric.lemogne{at}orange.fr

Received November 5, 2008. Accepted February 3, 2009.


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