The extended functional neuroanatomy of emotional processing biases for masked faces in major depressive disorder.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a mood-congruent processing bias in the amygdala toward face stimuli portraying sad expressions that is evident even when such stimuli are presented below the level of conscious awareness. The extended functional anatomical network that maintains this response bias has not been established, however.

Aims: To identify neural network differences in the hemodynamic response to implicitly presented facial expressions between depressed and healthy control participants.