Attenuated left prefrontal activation during a verbal fluency task in patients with depression.

Full Abstract

Functional neuroimaging studies on patients with depression have found abnormal activity in the left prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex compared with healthy controls. Other studies have shown that these regions become active in healthy subjects during verbal fluency tasks, while patients with depression show impaired performance on such tasks. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate changes in cerebral blood oxygenation associated with a verbal fluency task in depressed patients and healthy volunteers. In contrast to 10 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects who activated the left prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex during word generation, 10 depressed subjects showed attenuated activation in the left prefrontal cortex and did not show significant activation in the anterior cingulate cortex. These findings suggest that impaired performance during verbal fluency task in depressed patients is associated with abnormal neural responses within these regions.Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

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Author information

Author/s: Okada, G (G); Okamoto, Y (Y); Morinobu, S (S); Yamawaki, S (S); Yokota, N (N);

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Division of Frontier Medical Science, Programs for Biomedical Research, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Neuropsychobiology (Neuropsychobiology), published in Switzerland. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-; vol 47 (issue 1) : pp 21-6

Dates: Created 2003/02/27; Completed 2003/05/15; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12606841, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Brain Mapping
Case-Control Studies
Depressive Disorder, Major - physiopathology; psychology
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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