Rethinking the Use of Neutral Faces as a Baseline in fMRI Neuroimaging Studies of Axis ‐I Psychiatric Disorders

ABSTRACT Major Axis‐I disorders including major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), anxiety disorder, and schizophrenia are associated with a host of aberrations in the way social stimuli are processed. Face perception tasks are often used in neuroimaging research of emotion processing in both healthy and patient populations, and to date, there exists a mounting body of evidence, both behavioral and within the brain, indicating that emotional faces compared to neutral faces are processed abnormally by those with Axis‐I disorders relative to healthy control (HC) groups. The use of neutral faces as a “baseline control condition” is predicated on the assumption that neutral faces are processed in the same way HCs and individuals with major Axis‐I disorders. In this paper, existing fMRI studies examining the way neutral faces are processed in groups with Axis‐I disorders involving socioaffective perception are reviewed. In reviewing available studies, a consistent pattern of results demonstrated that these disorders are associated with abnormal frontolimbic activity in response to neutral faces and in particular within the amygdala and prefrontal regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) compared to HC groups. Specifically, increased amygdala activation was consistently reported in response to neutral faces in anxiety disorders and schizophrenia. Abnormal medial PFC activity was reported in patients wi...
Source: Journal of Neuroimaging - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Views and Reviews Source Type: research