Neural response to emotional faces in monozygotic twins: Association with familial risk of affective disorders

TY - JOUR

T1 - Neural response to emotional faces in monozygotic twins

T2 - Association with familial risk of affective disorders

AU - Meluken, Iselin

AU - Ottesen, Ninja

AU - Harmer, Catherine

AU - Macoveanu, Julian

AU - Siebner, Hartwig Roman

AU - Kessing, Lars

AU - Vinberg, Maj

AU - Miskowiak, Kamilla

PY - 2019/7/1

Y1 - 2019/7/1

N2 - Background: Aberrant neural and cognitive response to emotional faces has been observed in people at familial risk of an affective disorder. In this functional MRI (fMRI) study of monozygotic twins, we explored neural correlates of the attentional avoidance of emotional faces that we had previously observed in high-risk versus affected twins, and whether an abnormal neural response to emotional faces represents a risk endophenotype. Methods: We recruited unaffected monozygotic twins with a co-twin history of mood episodes (highrisk), monozygotic twins with previous mood episodes (affected) and monozygotic twins with no personal or first-degree history of mood episodes (low-risk) between December 2014 and January 2017 based on a nationwide register linkage. Participants viewed fearful and happy faces while performing a gender discrimination task during fMRI and performed emotional faces dot-probe and facial expression recognition tasks outside the scanner. Results: A total of 129 monozygotic twins underwent whole-brain fMRI. High-risk twins (n = 38) displayed greater medial and superior prefrontal response to emotional faces than affected twins (n = 62). This greater activity correlated with stronger attentional avoidance of emotional faces in high-risk twins. In contrast, high-risk and affected twins showed no aberrant neural activity to emotional faces compared with low-risk twins (n = 29). Limitations: A limitation of this study was its cross-sectional design. Conclusion: Greater recruitment of the medial and superior prefrontal cortex during implicit emotion processing in high-risk versus affected twins may represent a compensatory or resilience mechanism. In contrast, aberrant neural response to emotional faces does not seem to be a risk endophenotype for affective disorders.

AB - Background: Aberrant neural and cognitive response to emotional faces has been observed in people at familial risk of an affective disorder. In this functional MRI (fMRI) study of monozygotic twins, we explored neural correlates of the attentional avoidance of emotional faces that we had previously observed in high-risk versus affected twins, and whether an abnormal neural response to emotional faces represents a risk endophenotype. Methods: We recruited unaffected monozygotic twins with a co-twin history of mood episodes (highrisk), monozygotic twins with previous mood episodes (affected) and monozygotic twins with no personal or first-degree history of mood episodes (low-risk) between December 2014 and January 2017 based on a nationwide register linkage. Participants viewed fearful and happy faces while performing a gender discrimination task during fMRI and performed emotional faces dot-probe and facial expression recognition tasks outside the scanner. Results: A total of 129 monozygotic twins underwent whole-brain fMRI. High-risk twins (n = 38) displayed greater medial and superior prefrontal response to emotional faces than affected twins (n = 62). This greater activity correlated with stronger attentional avoidance of emotional faces in high-risk twins. In contrast, high-risk and affected twins showed no aberrant neural activity to emotional faces compared with low-risk twins (n = 29). Limitations: A limitation of this study was its cross-sectional design. Conclusion: Greater recruitment of the medial and superior prefrontal cortex during implicit emotion processing in high-risk versus affected twins may represent a compensatory or resilience mechanism. In contrast, aberrant neural response to emotional faces does not seem to be a risk endophenotype for affective disorders.

U2 - 10.1503/jpn.170246

DO - 10.1503/jpn.170246

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 30942564

AN - SCOPUS:85069238018

SN - 1180-4882

VL - 44

SP - 277

EP - 286

JO - Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience

JF - Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience

IS - 4

ER -