Neural activation to peer acceptance and rejection in relation to concurrent and prospective depression risk in adolescent and pre-adolescent girls

Laura R Stroud; Michele Morningstar; Chrystal Vergara-Lopez; Margaret H Bublitz; Sharon Y Lee; Jerome N Sanes; Ronald E Dahl; Jennifer S Silk; Eric E Nelson; Daniel P Dickstein

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108618

Neural activation to peer acceptance and rejection in relation to concurrent and prospective depression risk in adolescent and pre-adolescent girls

Biol Psychol. 2023 Jul:181:108618. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108618. Epub 2023 Jun 21.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA; Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital, Providence, RI, USA. Electronic address: Laura_Stroud@brown.edu.
² Department of Psychology & Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada; Center for Biobehavioral Health, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
³ Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA; Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital, Providence, RI, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
⁵ Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
⁶ School of Public Health, Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁸ Center for Biobehavioral Health, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
⁹ Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, MA, USA.

PMID: 37352911
PMCID: PMC10530136 (available on 2024-07-01)
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108618

Abstract

Neurobiological sensitivity to peer interactions is a proposed marker of risk for adolescent depression. We investigated neural response to peer rejection and acceptance in relation to concurrent and prospective depression risk in adolescent and pre-adolescent girls. Participants were 76 girls (M_age=13, 45% racial/ethnic minorities) varying in depression risk: 22 with current major depressive disorder (MDD), 30 at High Risk for MDD based on parental history, and 24 at Low Risk with no psychiatric history. Girls participated in the Chatroom-Interact task-involving rejection and acceptance feedback from fictitious peers-while undergoing functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging. Activation in response to peer rejection and acceptance was extracted from regions of interest. Depressive symptoms were assessed at 6- and 12-month follow-up. Girls with MDD showed blunted left subgenual anterior cingulate response to acceptance versus girls in High and Low Risk groups. Girls in the High Risk group showed greater right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) and right anterior insula (AI) activation to both acceptance and rejection versus girls in the MDD (rTPJ) and Low Risk (rTPJ, AI) groups. Greater rTPJ response to rejection was associated with fewer depressive symptoms at 12-months and mediated the association between High Risk group status and 12-month depressive symptoms; greater rTPJ response to acceptance mediated the association between High Risk and increased 12-month depressive symptoms. Our finding of associations between altered neural response to peer interactions and concurrent and prospective depression risk/resilience highlights the importance of neural underpinnings of social cognition as risk and compensatory adaptations along the pathway to depression.

Keywords: Acceptance; Adolescence; Anterior cingulate cortex; Anterior insula; Brain development; Chatroom Interact; Depression; FMRI; Female; Girls; Major depressive disorder; Peer relationships; Rejection; Sex differences; Social; Temporoparietal junction.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Depression / psychology
Depressive Disorder, Major*
Female
Gyrus Cinguli
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Peer Group
Prospective Studies

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

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