Behavioural and neural correlates of autobiographical memory and future thinking in depression
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1
The University of Auckland, School of Psychology, New Zealand
Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a decrease in the specificity of past and future events: When engaged in autobiographical memory (AM) or future thinking (FT) tasks, patients with a history of MDD generate more generic events compared to non-depressed individuals. The CaRFAX model proposes that reduced event specificity results from a combination of rumination, functional avoidance as well as executive dysfunction. In this study, we tested the contribution of CaRFAX model components to the specificity of past and future events in MDD. Moreover, we explored whether there are differences in the neural correlates of AM and FT during the generation of specific events from the past and future.
Methods: In Session 1, participants (17 MDD, 16 controls) completed measures of rumination, avoidance and executive function (working memory, inhibition, set-shifting and strategy use). In Session 2 (fMRI), participants generated past and future events in response to cues (e.g., getting/losing a pet). Events were scored for specificity during a post-scan interview. For the fMRI analysis (using spatiotemporal task Partial Least Squares), behaviour was matched across groups by only analysing trials on which specific events were generated.
Results: The MDD group were more ruminative and avoidant than controls, and generated fewer specific events during the AM and FT task. However, there were no group differences in executive function. Regressions revealed that strategy use (as indexed by CVLT semantic clustering) was associated with specificity over and above depression severity, rumination and avoidance. fMRI analyses showed that both groups engaged regions typically associated with AM and FT. However, the MDD group showed reduced activity in temporal regions (hippocampus, temporal pole) and increased recruitment of frontal regions (e.g., inferior frontal gyrus).
Discussion: Our results suggest that strategic abilities and neural changes both play an important role in the generation of specific past and future events in MDD. Strategic ability predicts event specificity over and above measures of rumination and avoidance. Although the MDD group was able to engage the same network as controls, they did exhibit reductions in key regions, such as the hippocampus, consistent with reports of hippocampal atrophy in MDD. However, prefrontal regions were over-activated in MDD, which may reflect greater executive demands and/or compensatory activation.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (DRA).
Keywords:
Depression,
autobiographical memory,
Future thinking,
fMRI,
Executive Function
Conference:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Oral
Topic:
Memory
Citation:
Addis
D,
Hach
S and
Tippett
LJ
(2013). Behavioural and neural correlates of autobiographical memory and future thinking in depression.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00191
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Received:
15 Oct 2013;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Donna Rose Addis, The University of Auckland, School of Psychology, Auckland, New Zealand, d.addis@auckland.ac.nz