Table 1 Description of fMRI studies on facial emotion processing, comparing a group of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients to healthy controls (HCs)
From: Facial emotion processing in major depression: a systematic review of neuroimaging findings
Author/year | Reference | Participants | Patient mean age (SD) | Patient (a) mean duration of illness in months; (b) mean episodes | Medication | Emotions | Paradigm and stimulus type | Stimulus duration | Analysis approach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Whole brain and/or ROI data: | |||||||||
Almeida et al. 2010 | [62] | 15 MDD, 15 HC, (15 BDD), (15 BDDr) | 32.74 (9.87) | (a) 13.67 ± 9.87; (b) not reported | Yes | Fear, sad, happy | Facial expression processing paradigm. Ekman faces. Morphed 50% and 100% intensity. Explicit task: label emotion. | 2 s | ROI |
Frodl et al. 2009 | [43] | 12 MDD, 12 HC | 43.3 (11.2) | Not reported | Yes | Sad, angry | Emotion face-matching task. Ekman faces. Explicit task: match emotion. Implicit task: match gender. Control task: match shapes. | 5.3 s | Whole brain, ROIs |
Frodl et al. 2011 | [27] | 24 MDD, 15 HC | 38.9 (10.4) | (a) 56.0 ± 63.4; (b) 1.6 ± 0.7 | No | Sad, angry | Emotion face-matching task. Faces from Gur and colleagues. Explicit task: match the emotion. Implicit task: match the gender. Control task: match shapes. | 5.3 s | Whole brain |
Fu et al. 2004; Fu et al. 2007 | 19 MDD, 19 HC | 43.2 (8.8) | Not reported | No | Sad, happy | Facial expression processing paradigm. Ekman faces. Morphed to express low, medium and high intensities. Implicit task: indicate the sex of the face. | 3 s | Whole brain | |
Fu et al. 2008 | [33] | 16 MDD, 16 HC | 40.0 (9.4) | (a) not reported; (b) 0.63 | No | Sad | Facial expression processing paradigm. Ekman faces. Morphed to express low, medium and high intensities. Implicit task: indicate the sex of the face. | 3 s | Whole brain |
Gotlib et al. 2005 | [45] | 18 MDD, 18 HC | 35.2 | Not reported | Yes | Sad, happy, neutral | Facial expression processing paradigm. Ekman faces. Implicit task: indicate the sex of the face. | 3 s | Whole brain |
Keedwell et al. 2005 | [42] | 12 MDD, 12 HC | 43 (9.8) | Not reported | Yes | Sad, happy, neutral | Mood provocation paradigm. Individual autobiographical memory prompts played prior to the presentation of mood congruent facial expressions. Ekman faces. Task: oral subjective rating of mood. | 2 s | Whole brain |
Lawrence et al. 2004 | [37] | 9 MDD, 11 HC, (12 BDD) | 41a (11) | (a) 96 ± 60; (b) not reported | Yes | Sad, fear, happy, neutral | Facial expression processing paradigm. Ekman faces. Morphed 50% and 100% intensity. Implicit task: indicate the sex of the face. | 2 s | Whole brain, ROIs |
Lee et al. 2008 | [38] | 21 MDD, 15 HC | 46.8 (9.1) | (a) 14.8 ± 3.3; (b) 1.9 ± 0.8 | Yes | Sad, angry, neutral | Face viewing paradigm. Data set of Korean faces. Task: evaluative ratings (arousal, valence). | 1.5 s | ROIs |
Matthews et al. 2008 | [28] | 15 MDD, 16 HC | 24.5 (5.5) | (a) not reported; (b) 4.46 | No | Angry, fear, happy | Emotion face-matching task. Emotional faces. Task: match faces. | 5 s | ROI |
Peluso et al. 2009 | [35] | 14 MDD, 15 HC | 37.9 (14) | Not reported | No | Angry, fear | Emotion face-matching task. Ekman faces. Explicit task: match emotion. Implicit task: match faces. Control task: match shapes. | 5 s | Whole brain, ROI |
Scheuerecker et al. 2010 | [41] | 13 MDD, 15 HC | 37.9 (10.1) | (a) 52.3 ± 71.5; (b) 1.45 ± 0.68 | No | Sad, angry | Emotion face-matching task. Faces from Gur and colleagues. Explicit task: match the emotion. Implicit task: match the gender. Control task: match shapes. |  | Whole brain |
Sheline et al. 2001 | [34] | 11 MDD, 11 HC | 40.3 | Not reported | No | Fear, happy, neutral | Subliminal emotion paradigm. Masked Ekman faces. Task: indicate the sex of the face. | Prime: 40 ms; mask: 160 ms | ROI |
Surguladze et al. 2010 | [39] | 9 MDD, 9 HC | 42.8 (7.2) | (a) 96 ± 61.2; (b) not reported | Yes | Disgust, fear, neutral | Facial expression processing paradigm. Ekman faces. Morphed 50% and 100% intensity. Implicit task: indicate the sex of the face + offline facial affect recognition task. | 2 s | Whole brain |
Surguladze et al. 2005 | [31] | 16 MDD, 14 HC | 42.3 (8.4) | (a) 90 ± 61.2; (b) not reported | Unknown | Sad, happy, neutral | Facial expression processing paradigm. Ekman faces. Morphed 50% and 100% intensity. Implicit task: indicate the sex of the face. | 2 s | Whole brain, ROIs |
Suslow et al. 2010 | [30] | 30 MDD, 26 HC | 38.8 (11.4) | (a) 72.2 ± 75.0; (b) 2.7 ± 2.0 | Yes | Sad, happy, neutral | Subliminal emotion paradigm. Masked Ekman faces. Task: evaluative ratings of the neutral mask face (valence) + offline detection task. | Prime: 33 ms; mask: 467 ms | Whole brain, ROI |
Townsend et al. 2010 | [40] | 15 MDD, 15 HC | 46.6 (11.2) | (a) 176.4 ± 159.6; (b) 3 (median) | No | Sad, fearful | Emotion face-matching task. Ekman faces. Explicit task: match emotion. Control task: match shapes. |  | Whole brain, ROIs |
Victor et al. 2010 | [29] | 22 MDD (16 MDDr), 25 HC | 33.2 (5.0) | Not reported | No | Sad, happy, neutral | Subliminal emotion paradigm. NimStim set of facial expressions. Task: remember the neutral target face and respond to indicate whether this target face appears during the current trial. | Prime: 26 ms; mask: 107 ms | Whole brain, ROI |
Zhong et al. 2011 | [36] | 29 MDD, 31 HC, (26 CV subjects) | 20.45 (1.82) | Not reported | No | Fearful, angry | Emotion face-matching task. Standardized set of Chinese facial expressions. Implicit task: match faces. Control task: match shapes. | 5 s | ROI, Whole brain |
Functional connectivity studies: | |||||||||
Almeida et al. 2009 | [47] | 16 MDD, 16 HC, (15 BDD) | 32.3 (9.7) | (a) 13.4 ± 9.6; (b) not reported | Yes | Sad, happy, neutral | Facial expression processing paradigm. Ekman faces. Morphed 50% and 100% intensity. Explicit task: label emotion. | 2 s | Dynamic causal modeling |
Carballedo et al. 2011 | [48] | 15 MDD, 15 HC | 39.87 (8.57) | Not reported | No | Sad, angry | Emotion face-matching task. Ekman faces. Explicit task: match emotion. Control task: match shapes. | 5.25 s | Structural equation modeling |
Chen et al. 2008 | [49] | 19 MDD, 19 HC | 34.3 (8.6) | Not reported | No | Sad | Facial expression processing paradigm. Ekman faces. Morphed to express low, medium and high intensities. Implicit task: indicate the sex of the face. | 3 s | Functional connectivity |
Dannlowski et al. 2009 | [50] | 34 MDD, 31 HC | 38.6 (12.2) | (a) 125.0 ± 125.5; (b) 4.7 ± 5.3 | Yes | Sad, angry, happy, neutral | Passive face viewing paradigm. Ekman faces. | 500 ms | Functional connectivity |
Frodl et al. 2010 | [51] | 25 MDD, 15 HC | 39.4 (10.4) | (a) 51.8 ± 63.9; (b) 1.52 ± 0.6 | No | Sad, angry | Emotion face-matching task. Ekman faces. Explicit task: match emotion. Implicit task: match gender. Control task: match shapes. |  | Functional connectivity |
Mathews et al. 2008 | [28] | 15 MDD, 16 HC | 24.5 (5.5) | (a) not reported; (b) 4.46 | No | Angry, fear, happy | Emotion face-matching task. Emotional faces. Task: match faces. | 5 s | Functional connectivity |