Subgenual activation and the finger of blame: individual differences and depression vulnerability

• Published in: Psychological medicine 2022-06, Vol.52 (8), p.1560-1568
• Main Authors: Lythe, Karen E, Gethin, Jennifer A, Workman, Clifford I, Lambon Ralph, Matthew A., Deakin, John F.W., Moll, Jorge, Zahn, Roland
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attachment; Autonomy; Blame; Cortex; Cortex (cingulate); Dependency; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major - diagnostic imaging; Depressive Disorder, Major - psychology; Depressive personality disorders; Drugs; Emotions; Factor analysis; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Guilt; Humans; Individual differences; Individuality; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Mental depression; Original Article; Prone; Questionnaires; Remission (Medicine); Selfblame; Selfcriticism; Sociotropy; Vulnerability
• ISSN: 0033-2917; 1469-8978
• DOI: 10.1017/S0033291720003372

Subgenual cingulate cortex (SCC) responses to self-blaming emotion-evoking stimuli were previously found in individuals prone to self-blame with and without a history of major depressive disorder (MDD). This suggested SCC activation reflects self-blaming emotions such as guilt, which are central to models of MDD vulnerability. Here, we re-examined these hypotheses in an independent larger sample. A total of 109 medication-free participants (70 with remitted MDD and 39 healthy controls) underwent fMRI whilst judging self- and other-blaming emotion-evoking statements. They also completed validated questionnaires of proneness to self-blaming emotions including those related to internal (autonomy) and external (sociotropy) evaluation, which were subjected to factor analysis. An interaction between group (remitted MDD Control) and condition (self- other-blame) was observed in the right SCC (BA24). This was due to higher SCC signal for self-blame in remitted MDD and higher other-blame-selective activation in Control participants. Across the whole sample, extracted SCC activation cluster averages for self- other-blame were predicted by a regression model which included the reliable components derived from our factor analysis of measures of proneness to self-blaming emotions. Interestingly, this prediction was solely driven by autonomy/self-criticism, and adaptive guilt factors, with no effect of sociotropy/dependency. Despite confirming the prediction of SCC activation in self-blame-prone individuals and those vulnerable to MDD, our results suggest that SCC activation reflects blame irrespective of where it is directed rather than selective for self. We speculate that self-critical individuals have more extended SCC representations for blame in the context of self-agency.