Dorsolateral Prefrontal Activation in Emotional Autobiographical Task in Depressed and Anxious College Students: An fNIRS Study

Yan Zhang (), Xiaoqin Li, Ying Guo, Zhe Zhang, Fang Xu, Nian Xiang, Min Qiu, Qiang Xiao, Pu Wang () and Hui Shi ()
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Yan Zhang: School of Educational Science, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Luoyu Road No. 1037, Hongshan, Wuhan 430074, China
Xiaoqin Li: School of Educational Science, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Luoyu Road No. 1037, Hongshan, Wuhan 430074, China
Ying Guo: School of Psychology, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610021, China
Zhe Zhang: Humanities Department, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Fang Xu: Department of Neurology, Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Nian Xiang: Department of Neurology, Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Min Qiu: Department of Neurology, Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Qiang Xiao: Department of Neurology, Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Pu Wang: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The Seventh Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen 518000, China
Hui Shi: Department of Clinical Psychology, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100020, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-12

Abstract: Objective: The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is strongly associated with mood symptoms. This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology to explore the features of brain neural activity in the dlPFC of anxious and depressed college students, during an emotional autobiographical memory task, and to understand the differences in brain cognitive mechanisms caused by anxiety and depression. Methods: A simple random sampling method was used to test 440 college students at a university with a healthy control group (HC, 220 participants), a pure depression group (PD, 92 participants), and a pure anxiety group (PA, 128 participants). The average oxyhemoglobin in the dlPFC of the subjects during the emotional autobiographical memory task was collected by a 53-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy imaging device. Results: The activation of the left dlPFC (ch13) in the pure depression group was significantly higher than in the pure anxiety group. The activation of the right dlPFC (ch48) was significantly higher under positive emotions than under negative emotions. The interaction between emotion valence and group was marginally significant, and the activation of the right dlPFC (ch41) in the pure depression group was significantly higher under positive emotion than in negative emotion. The activation of the pure depression group under positive emotions was significantly higher than that of the pure anxiety group. In comparison, the activation of the pure depression group under negative emotions was significantly lower than that of the healthy control group. The results of correlation analysis showed that the activation of the left dlPFC (ch13) was significantly negatively correlated with anxiety in positive emotions, but the activation of the right dlPFC (ch34, ch42) was significantly positively correlated with anxiety in positive and negative emotions. Conclusions: The right dlPFC was insensitive to positive emotions in college students with high-anxiety symptoms, whereas this region was insensitive to negative emotions in college students with high depressive symptoms, which might be one of the critical differences in the cognitive mechanisms of anxiety and depression. Furthermore, left and right dlPFC activation correlated differently with anxiety. The higher the anxiety level, the lower the activation on the left side, and the higher the activation on the right side. The results suggested that anxiety might reduce the function of the left dlPFC.

Keywords: anxiety; depression; emotional autobiography; the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; fNIRS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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