Cognitive behavioral therapy changes functional connectivity between medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate
Shinpei Yoshimura1, Yasumasa Okamoto2, Miki Matsunaga3
1Department of Psychology, Otemon Gakuin University, 2-1-15 Nishi-ai, Ibaraki 564-8502, Japan.
Background:
Depression is characterized by negative self-cognition. Our previous study (Yoshimura et al. 2014) revealed changes in brain activity after cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression, but changes in functional connectivity were not assessed.
Method:
This study included 29 depressive patients and 15 healthy control participants. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging was used to investigate possible CBT-related functional connectivity changes associated with negative emotional self-referential processing. Depressed and healthy participants (overlapping with our previous study, Yoshimura et al. 2014) were included. We defined a seed region (medial prefrontal cortex) and coupled region (ACC) based on our previous study, and we examined changes in MPFC-ACC functional connectivity from pretreatment to posttreatment.
Results:
CBT was associated with reduced functional connectivity between the MPFC and ACC. Symptom change with CBT was positively correlated with change in MPFC-ACC functional connectivity.
Limitations:
Patients received pharmacotherapy including antidepressant. The present sample size was quite small and more study is needed. Statistical threshold in fMRI analysis was relatively liberal.
Conclusions:
CBT for depression may disrupt MPFC-ACC connectivity, with associated improvements in depressive symptoms and dysfunctional cognition.
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