Abstract
Only a few studies have examined the relationship between self-assessment of affective symptoms and brain activation in a non-clinical population. The aim of the present study was to assess this relationship and examine the underlying cortical mechanisms in a non-clinical population. Seventy-nine healthy male volunteers were assessed for affective symptoms using the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), for apathy using the Apathy Scale (AS), and for feelings of stress using the Stress Arousal Checklist (SACL). Participants also performed a serial arithmetic task according to the Uchida-Kraepelin performance test while hemoglobin concentration changes were assessed on the surface of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) using 32-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). The activity on the right side of PFC had a significant negative correlation with the SDS score. The AS and SACL scores were positively correlated with the SDS score. Furthermore, in a multiple regression analysis, SDS scores were predicted by the activity of the right PFC, AS scores, and SACL scores. These results suggest that the association between the cortical activation changes, apathy, and feelings of stress may objectively identify individuals with sub-threshold affective symptoms.
Highlights
Variability in affective state has been observed in non-clinical populations, and such variability has been shown to have a high correlation with psychosocial functioning
The corresponding author in the present study previously reported that affective symptoms were associated with prefrontal hyperactivation using the Trail Making Test (TMT) in a non-clinical population (Sawa et al, 2012), only a few studies have examined the relationships between affective symptoms, cognitive function, and brain activation in a non-clinical population
This study aimed to evaluate if prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) might represent a biological assessment of sub-threshold affective symptoms when the affective state is evaluated in non-clinical population
Summary
Variability in affective state has been observed in non-clinical populations, and such variability has been shown to have a high correlation with psychosocial functioning. The corresponding author in the present study previously reported that affective symptoms were associated with prefrontal hyperactivation using the Trail Making Test (TMT) in a non-clinical population (Sawa et al, 2012), only a few studies have examined the relationships between affective symptoms, cognitive function, and brain activation in a non-clinical population. It is not clear whether sub-threshold affective symptoms of individual subjects interact with brain activation during a serial arithmetic task. We performed the following study to test this hypothesis directly
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