Over the past decade an important approach to describing and treating psychiatric disorders has been the application of cognitive neuroscience techniques to understanding the neural mechanisms underlying clinical dysfunction.

For example, relative to healthy volunteers, individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) may show hypoactivation of brain systems implicated in cognitive control (e.g. dorsal and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, dlPFC and vlPFC) and hyperactivation of systems implicated in triggering emotional responses (e.g. the amygdala).

Of particular interest is the extent to which such patterns may be related not just to MDD, but to suicide risk associated with depressive episodes. Although to date, little functional imaging data have addressed this question, PET and postmortem work from our research team has shown that ventrolateral PFC and anterior cingulate hypofunction, as well as lower serotonin transporter binding in the amygdala and ventral/orbital PFC, may contribute to the risk of suicide or nonfatal suicide attempts.

Studying the neural mechanisms underlying clinical dysfunction

MRI Studies of the Brain in Depression and Relationship to Childhood Adversity and Suicidal Behavior

This study seeks to clarify these links, building on an emerging model of the cognitive control of emotion in healthy adults to examine the neural bases of a specific cognitive strategy for emotion regulation – known as reappraisal – in individuals with major depressive disorder who have attempted suicide (MDD-Atts), who have never attempted suicide (MDD-Non-Atts), healthy volunteers (HVs) and individuals who have a family member who attempted suicide and who may be at higher risk for suicide.

We will compare the neural correlates of reappraisal performance of MDD-Atts, MDD-NonAtts, and HVs to determine whether depressed individuals in general, and those who attempt suicide in particular

• generate stronger negative emotions or have greater trouble reducing the severity of negative emotions
• generate weaker positive emotions or have greater trouble strengthening positive emotions
• or show patterns of regulation-related activity that are related to abnormalities in serotonin function, childhood adversity, stress responsiveness and/or aggression.

Finally, we will explore whether high risk offspring show response patterns that resemble depressed attempters, thereby suggesting a predisposition towards suicide.

How To Participate In This Study

Please click here for information on how to participate in this study as a patient, individual with a family history of suicide, or healthy volunteer.