Abnormally Reduced Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortical Activity and Effective Connectivity With Amygdala in Response to Negative Emotional Faces in Postpartum Depression
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: Postpartum major depression is a significant public health problem that strikes 15% of new mothers and confers adverse consequences for mothers, children, and families. The neural mechanisms involved in postpartum depression remain unknown, but brain processing of affective stimuli appears to be involved in other affective disorders. The authors examined activity in response to negative emotional faces in the dorsomedial pre-frontal cortex and amygdala, key emotion regulatory neural regions of importance to both mothering and depression. METHOD: Postpartum healthy mothers (N=16) and unmedicated depressed mothers (N=14) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging blood-oxygen-level-dependent acquisition during a block-designed face versus shape matching task. A two-way analysis of variance was performed examining main effects of condition and group and group-by-condition interaction on activity in bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortical and amygdala regions of interest. RESULTS: Depressed mothers relative to healthy mothers had significantly reduced left dorsomedial prefrontal cortical face-related activity. In depressed mothers, there was also a significant negative correlation between left amygdala activity and postpartum depression severity and a significant positive correlation between right amygdala activity and absence of infant-related hostility. There was reliable top-down connectivity from the left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex to the left amygdala in healthy, but not depressed, mothers. CONCLUSIONS: Significantly diminished dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activity and dorsomedial prefrontal cortical-amygdala effective connectivity in response to negative emotional faces may represent an important neural mechanism, or effect, of postpartum depression. Reduced amygdala activity in response to negative emotional faces is associated with greater postpartum depression severity and more impaired maternal attachment processes in postpartum depressed mothers.
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There was a significantly reduced left dorsomedial prefrontal cortical face-related activity in response to fear and anger faces.
“as well as a significantly reduced left dorsomedial prefrontal cortical face-related activity in response to fear and anger faces.”
From Neuroendocrinology of Parental Response to Baby‐Cry (2011) · cites this paper as [70]
In the first study of brain activity in clinically depressed mothers, frontal executive function regions were less sensitive to a standard face-matching task.
“In the first study of brain activity in clinically depressed mothers, frontal executive function regions were less sensitive to a standard face-matching task (70).”
From Neuroendocrinology of Parental Response to Baby‐Cry (2011) · cites this paper as [70]
There was an inverse relationship between depression and the amygdala response to negative faces.
“Furthermore, there was an inverse relationship between depression and the amygdala response to negative faces”
From Neuroendocrinology of Parental Response to Baby‐Cry (2011) · cites this paper as [70]
Women with postpartum depression demonstrated an absence or disengagement of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex-amygdala connectivity while viewing fearful and threatening faces, whereas healthy mothers had intact dorsomedial prefrontal cortex-amygdala connectivity.
“In a single such study, women with PPD demonstrated an absence or disengagement of dorsomedial PFC- amygdala connectivity while viewing fearful and threatening faces, whereas healthy mothers had intact dorsomedial PFC-amygdala connectivity to fearful and threatening faces. (Moses-Kolko et al., 2010).”
From The maternal brain and its plasticity in humans (2016) · cites this paper as Moses-Kolko et al., 2010
In mothers attending to non-infant negative emotional stimuli, postpartum depression versus healthy status and greater postpartum depression severity were associated with reduced activity in the amygdala to fearful and threatening faces or negatively valenced words.
“Two existing studies (Moses-Kolko et al., 2010; Silverman et al., 2007) of mothers attending to non-infant negative emotional stimuli found that PPD versus healthy status and greater PPD severity was associated with reduced activity in the amygdala to fearful and threatening faces or negatively valenced words.”
From The maternal brain and its plasticity in humans (2016) · cites this paper as Moses-Kolko et al., 2010
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- Authors
- Moses-Kolko, E. L., Perlman, S. B., Wisner, K. L., James, J., Saul, A. T., & Phillips, M. L.
- Affiliations
- From the Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh; the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Radiology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh; the Departments of Epidemiology and Women's Studies, University of Pittsburgh; and the Department of Psychological Medicine, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- Venue
- American Journal of Psychiatry
- Published
- 2010-11
- Volume
- 167
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1373-1380
- ISSN
- 0002-953X (ISSN-L)
- 1535-7228
- PMC
- PMC3293151
- OpenAlex
- W2114757046
- Cited by
- 190
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 10.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- American Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01mh076971-05)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH079164, R01-MH076971, MH076971, K23MH064561, T32MH018951, T32-MH18951)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD067185)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Keywords
- postpartum depression, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, effective connectivity, face processing, maternal attachment, emotion regulation, neurobiology of depression
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Amygdala, Brain Mapping, Major Depressive Disorder, Discrimination, Psychological, Dominance, Cerebral, Emotions, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Nerve Net, Oxygen, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Reference Values, Prefrontal Cortex, Depression, Postpartum, Young Adult
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