Cognitive Neuroscience, Serotonin and Depression

Question 1

are attention biases more typical of depression or anxiety?

Answer 1

anxiety

Question 2

attention biases in depression?

Answer 2

characterised by biases in maintaining/shifting attention = difficulties for depressed people to disengage from negative material

Question 3

how does fMRI (functional MRI) work?

Answer 3

detecting the changes in blood oxygenation and flow that occur in response to neural activity – when a brain area is more active it consumes more oxygen and to meet this increased demand
blood flow increases to the active are

Question 4

attention biases: neurofunctional abnormalities

Answer 4

sustained amygdala response to negative stimuli
Prefrontal cortex:
• perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (BA 24, 25, and 32)
appears to mediate negative attentional biases
• lateral inferior frontal cortex associated with the impaired ability
to divert attention from task-irrelevant negative information

Question 5

memory biases: depression

Answer 5

Preferential recall of negative compared to positive material

Question 6

apart from depressed people, memory biases also present in?

Answer 6

individuals at risk (neuroticism) and in recovered depressed individuals

Question 7

apart from depressed and anxious people, attention biases present in?

Answer 7

remitted depressed adults and high risk individuals: attention biases in healthy girls at high risk for depression due to maternal
psychopathology but not in never-depressed individuals with high
neuroticism

Question 8

perceptual biases and facial expression recognition in depression

Answer 8

^ recognition -ve faces, decreased recognition of +ve faces

reduced recognition of all basic emotions except for sadness

Question 9

who is at risk of perceptual biases?

Answer 9

in neuroticism reduced recognition of happy faces

Question 10

Facial expression processing:

neurofunctional abnormalities

Answer 10

Enhanced amygdala response to negative faces, even in the absence of awareness but not always replicated

Question 11

first line depression medication

Answer 11

SSRIs

Question 12

standard antidepressants have a delay in onset of action of at least _______ after treatment begins?

Answer 12

2 weeks

Question 13

Prediction of clinical response to SSRI

Answer 13

Elevated baseline ACC activity in depressed patients during tasks that probe affective circuitry
early decreased brain (incl. amygdala) response to fear

Question 14

facial expression recognition biases are associated with what?

Answer 14

dysfunctional amygdala and ACC activation

Question 15

what does the ‘monoamine deficiency hypothesis’ postulate?

Answer 15

that depressive symptoms arise from insufficient levels of monoamine
neurotransmitters serotonin (or 5-hydroxytryptamine , 5-HT),
norepinephrine, and/or dopamine

Question 16

list indirect evidence for 5-HT hypofunction in depression

Answer 16

5HT depletion by reserpine can cause depression, useful antidepressants ^[monoamine], reduced 5HT levels in brainstem of those who commit suicide, ^monoamin oxidas A in MDD, tryptophan depletion triggers relapse in MDD

Question 17

list methods to investigate brain pharmacology

Answer 17

PET

fMRI

Question 18

how to approach quantifying dopamine receptors?

Answer 18

use [11C]raclopride as a ligand for amphetamine challenge

Question 19

method for measuring release of cerebral 5HT

Answer 19

using a 5-HT2A agonist PET tracer, amphetamine as pharma challenge