Abstract
Background
Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a symptom dimension of depression that is associated
with a poorer prognosis in terms of higher recurrence, treatment resistance, residual
symptoms, and disability. This investigation examined whether RNT is associated with
aberrant reward processing and fear learning.
Methods
Very high RNT (VH-RNT) (n = 60) and high RNT (H-RNT) (n = 60) propensity-matched individuals with depression (age, sex, race/ethnicity, income/employment,
body mass index, depressive and anxiety symptom severity) participated in this study
along with matched healthy comparison volunteers (n = 30). This propensity-matched sample was selected from the larger Tulsa 1000 study.
Participants performed two functional magnetic resonance imaging tasks: the monetary
incentive delay task probing reward processing and the fear conditioning task probing
aversive learning and extinction.
Results
Both VH-RNT and H-RNT groups showed lower neural activity than healthy comparison
subjects in reward circuitry, including the inferior frontal gyrus (VH-RNT: β = −1.24,
H-RNT: β = −1.28) and the cerebellum (VH-RNT: β = −0.93, H-RNT: β = −1.14). However,
individuals with VH-RNT exhibited lower activation than those with H-RNT in central
autonomic network components during fear conditioning (β = −0.84) and continued conditioned
responses during early extinction in the postcentral cortex (β = 0.71).
Conclusions
VH-RNT showed aberrant processing in fear conditioning during both learning and extinction
phases compared with H-RNT. These findings demonstrate that dysfunctions of negative
valence associated with RNT may be domain specific, which should be taken into account
for identifying potential specific targets of intervention.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: January 19, 2022
Accepted:
January 6,
2022
Received in revised form:
January 6,
2022
Received:
October 18,
2021
Footnotes
The Tulsa 1000 Investigators include the following contributors: Robin Aupperle, Ph.D.; Jerzy Bodurka, Ph.D.; Sahib S. Khalsa, M.D., Ph.D.; Jonathan Savitz, Ph.D.; Jennifer Stewart, Ph.D.; and Teresa A. Victor, Ph.D.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Society of Biological Psychiatry.
