Effects of Psychotherapy on Glutamatergic Neurotransmission.

Introduction: Psychodynamic psychotherapy is an effective and widely used treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD); however, little is known about neurobiological changes associated with induced symptom improvement.

Methods: Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy with a two-dimensional J-resolved sequence served to test the relationship between glutamate (Glu) and glutamine (Gln) levels, measured separately in pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) and the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) as a control region, with change in depression symptoms after 6 months of weekly psychodynamic psychotherapy sessions in MDD patients. Depressed (N = 45) and healthy (N = 30) subjects participated in a baseline proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurement and a subgroup of MDD subjects (N = 21) then received once-a-week psychodynamic psychotherapy and participated in a second proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurement after 6 months.

Predicting non-response to multimodal day clinic treatment in severely impaired depressed patients: a machine learning approach.

A considerable number of depressed patients do not respond to treatment. Accurate prediction of non-response to routine clinical care may help in treatment planning and improve results. A longitudinal sample of N = 239 depressed patients was assessed at admission to multi-modal day clinic treatment, after six weeks, and at discharge.

Anticipating control over aversive stimuli is mediated by the medial prefrontal cortex: An fMRI study with healthy adults.

The anticipation of control over aversive events in life is relevant for our mental health. Insights on the underlying neural mechanisms remain limited. We developed a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task that uses auditory stimuli to explore the neural correlates of (1) the anticipation of control over aversion and (2) the processing of aversion.

Differential Alterations in Resting State Functional Connectivity Associated with Depressive Symptoms and Early Life Adversity.

Depression and early life adversity (ELA) are associated with aberrant resting state functional connectivity (FC) of the default mode (DMN), salience (SN), and central executive networks (CEN). However, the specific and differential associations of depression and ELA with FC of these networks remain unclear. Applying a dimensional approach, here we analyzed associations of FC between major nodes of the DMN, SN, and CEN with severity of depressive symptoms and ELA defined as childhood abuse and neglect in a sample of 83 healthy and depressed subjects.

Sex differences in depressive symptoms and their networks in a treatment-seeking population - a cross-sectional study.

Background: The higher prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) in females relative to males is well-established. Some authors have posited this difference arises to divergent symptom profiles in females vs. males.

Depression is associated with hyperconnectivity of an introspective socio-affective network during the recall of formative relationship episodes.

Background: Depression and the experience of early adversity are associated with impairments in interpersonal and social cognitive functioning. The neural mechanisms involved in these impairments remain insufficiently understood.

Methods: In a sample of 48 depressed and 50 healthy participants, we explored seed-to-voxel functional connectivity (FC) during the recall of formative relationship episodes using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

The awareness of the scared - context dependent influence of oxytocin on brain function.

Oxytocin is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter and has been originally recognized for its role in childbirth and lactation. Later, it became widely known as a "cuddle hormone" that induces trusting behavior towards strangers and reduces social stress and anxiety. Several studies showed that oxytocin influences empathic behavior and has prosocial effects.

Thinking about the past to shape the present: neural activation during the recall of relationship episodes.

Reflecting on oneself and others in relationships is an ability that is central to our social existence. Specifically, considering formative autobiographical experiences in relationships may contribute to more flexibility in perceiving, as well as in shaping present relationships. Reflecting on such experiences mobilizes different social cognitive and affective processes.

Neuropsychodynamic Approach to Depression: Integrating Resting State Dysfunctions of the Brain and Disturbed Self-Related Processes.

A mechanism-based approach was developed focusing on the psychodynamic, psychological and neuronal mechanisms in healthy and depressed persons. In this integrative concept of depression, the self is a core dimension in depression. It is attributed to negative emotions (e.

One look is worth a thousand words: New picture stimuli of interpersonal situations.

This paper introduces a picture system that can be used in functional imaging experiments exploring interpersonal relations. This is important for psychotherapy research to understand the neural basis of psychological treatment effects. Pictures have many advantages for the design of functional imaging experiments, but no picture system illustrating interpersonal behavior patterns is, to date, available.

Determinants of cerebral hemodynamics during the Trail Making Test in schizophrenia.

Patients with schizophrenia show deficits in cognitive functioning, and studies on cerebral hemodynamics have revealed aberrant patterns of mean cerebral blood flow velocity (MFV), an equivalent of cerebral blood flow (CBF). Therefore, we carried out a controlled study that assessed MFV in schizophrenia during a well-known neuropsychological task, the Trail Making Test (TMT). We measured MFV in the middle cerebral arteries using functional transcranial Doppler sonography in 15 schizophrenia patients and 15 healthy subjects.

Increased pregenual anterior cingulate glucose and lactate concentrations in major depressive disorder.

There is ample evidence that glucose metabolism in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (PACC) is increased in major depressive disorder (MDD), whereas it is still unknown whether glucose levels per se are also elevated. Elevated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lactate concentrations in MDD patients might indicate that increased glycolytical metabolization of glucose to lactate in astrocytes either alone or in conjunction with mitochondrial dysfunction results in an accumulation of lactate and contributes to pathophysiological mechanisms of MDD. However, until now, no study investigated in vivo PACC glucose and lactate levels in MDD.

Ketamine administration reduces amygdalo-hippocampal reactivity to emotional stimulation.

Increased amygdala reactivity might lead to negative bias during emotional processing that can be reversed by antidepressant drug treatment. However, little is known on how N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonism with ketamine as a novel antidepressant drug target might modulate amygdala reactivity to emotional stimulation. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI), we assessed amygdalo-hippocampal reactivity at baseline and during pharmacological stimulation with ketamine (intravenous bolus of 0.

Effects of ketamine on cognition-emotion interaction in the brain.

Cognition-emotion interaction in the brain can be investigated by incorporating stimuli with emotional content into cognitive tasks. Emotional stimuli in the context of a working memory (WM) task yield increased activation in WM-related lateral prefrontal regions, whereas cognitive effort enhances deactivation in emotion-related cortical midline regions. N-methyl-d-aspartate glutamate receptors (NMDA-Rs) are critically involved in WM, and NMDA-R antagonists, such as ketamine, accordingly affect WM but also have a profound impact on emotional processing, as underscored by the rapid reduction of depressive symptoms after administration of a single dose of ketamine.

Essentials of psychoanalytic process and change: how can we investigate the neural effects of psychodynamic psychotherapy in individualized neuro-imaging?

The paper focuses on the essentials of psychoanalytic process and change and the question of how the neural correlates and mechanisms of psychodynamic psychotherapy can be investigated. The psychoanalytic approach aims at enabling the patient to "remember, repeat, and work through" concerning explicit memory. Moreover, the relationship between analyst and patient establishes a new affective configuration which enables a reconstruction of the implicit memory.

Ketamine decreases resting state functional network connectivity in healthy subjects: implications for antidepressant drug action.

Increasing preclinical and clinical evidence underscores the strong and rapid antidepressant properties of the glutamate-modulating NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine. Targeting the glutamatergic system might thus provide a novel molecular strategy for antidepressant treatment. Since glutamate is the most abundant and major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain, pathophysiological changes in glutamatergic signaling are likely to affect neurobehavioral plasticity, information processing and large-scale changes in functional brain connectivity underlying certain symptoms of major depressive disorder.

Gender and rapid alterations of hemispheric dominance during planning.

Background: Mental planning and carrying out a plan provoke specific cerebral hemodynamic responses. Gender aspects of hemispheric laterality using rapid cerebral hemodynamics have not been reported.

Method: Here, we applied functional transcranial Doppler sonography to examine lateralization of cerebral hemodynamics of the middle cerebral arteries of 28 subjects (14 women and 14 men) performing a standard planning task.

Sustained cognitive impairments after clinical recovery of severe depression.

Neuropsychological impairment is prominent in patients with depression, but it is unclear whether deficits persist after clinical response. This study aimed to investigate neuropsychological functions in the course of the illness. Depressive patients were investigated in the acute state and after clinical response using an extensive neuropsychological test battery.

Gender characteristics of cerebral hemodynamics during complex cognitive functioning.

Functional Transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD) has been applied to assess peak mean cerebral blood flow velocity (MFV) with a high temporal resolution during cognitive activation. Yet, little attention has been devoted to gender-related alterations of MFV, including spectral analysis. In healthy subjects, fTCD was used to investigate a series of cerebral hemodynamic parameters in the middle cerebral arteries (MCA) during the Trail Making Tests (TMT), a means of selective attention and complex cognitive functioning.

Reduced negative BOLD responses in the default-mode network and increased self-focus in depression.

Objectives: Functional imaging studies in major depressive disorder (MDD) indicate abnormal resting state neural activity and negative blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses (NBRs) in regions of the default-mode network (DMN).

Methods: Since activity in DMN regions has been associated with self-relatedness, we investigated neural activity in these regions during self-related emotional judgement and passive picture viewing in 25 patients with MDD and 25 healthy controls in an event-related fMRI design.

Results: Behaviourally, MDD subjects showed significantly higher ratings of self-relatedness that also correlated with depression symptoms such as hopelessness.

Emotional processing and executive functions in major depressive disorder: dorsal prefrontal activity correlates with performance in the intra-extra dimensional set shift.

Unlabelled: Heinzel A, Northoff G, Boeker H, Boesiger P, Grimm S. Emotional processing and executive functions in major depressive disorder: dorsal prefrontal activity correlates with performance in the intra-extra dimensional set shift.

Objective: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterised by predominately negatively valenced emotional symptoms that are often accompanied by cognitive impairments.

Neural correlates of 'pessimistic' attitude in depression.

Background: Preparing for potentially threatening events in the future is essential for survival. Anticipating the future to be unpleasant is also a cognitive key feature of depression. We hypothesized that 'pessimism'-related emotion processing would characterize brain activity in major depression.

Rapid cerebral hemodynamic modulation during set shifting: evidence of time-locked associations with cognitive control in females.

Set shifting provokes specific alterations of cerebral hemodynamics in basal cerebral arteries. However, no gender differences have been reported. In the following functional transcranial Doppler study, we introduced cerebral hemodynamic modulation to the aspects of set shifting during Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST).

Segregated neural representation of psychological and somatic-vegetative symptoms in severe major depression.

Objective: The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is probably the most widely used depression scale. It has been suggested that it contains a two-factor structure measuring cognitive-affective (i.e.