Abstract
Background: Depression is one of the most concerning mental disorders in youth. Because atypical excessive neural activity during self-referential processing is often implicated in depression, identifying psychological factors that link to lower depression and less excessive neural activity during self-referential processing is critical for treatment development. This study examined the relationship between self-compassion – a protective factor of youth depression – and neural activity during self-appraisals, a well-established experimental paradigm for studying self-referential processing, and their associations with depression severity in depressed and healthy youth. Methods: The sample consisted of 115 youth (79 met the clinical diagnosis of depression; 36 were matched healthy controls) aged from 11 to 17 years (68 females). Self-compassion and depression severity were measured with self-reported scales. In the scanner, participants were asked to judge whether the phrases they heard described them from four perspectives (self, mother, classmate, and best friend). Results: Higher self-compassion was associated with lower PCC/precuneus activity especially during negatively-valenced self-appraisals and explained its association with reduced depression severity. In depressed youth, higher self-compassion was associated with lower superior temporal gyrus/operculum/postcentral gyrus/insula activity especially during positively-valenced self-appraisals. In healthy youth, higher self-compassion was associated with higher activity in these regions. Conclusions: Self-compassion was associated with less excessive experiential immersion and/or autobiographical memory retrieval during negative self-appraisals. Neural stimulation interventions targeting PCC/precuneus activity during negative self-appraisals combined with behavioral interventions targeting self-compassion could be a promising approach to youth depression treatment.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 717-724 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Affective Disorders |
Volume | 339 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 15 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding was provided by K01MH092601, R61MH122634-01, and two NARSAD grants to the last author KQ. Grant support from 2023XS-0074 to GL and from K01MH122502 to NZ is acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023
Keywords
- Adolescence
- Depression
- Self-appraisal
- Self-compassion
- fMRI
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't