P.1.e.022 Effects of attention and emotion on face processing in depression: a functional MRI study

Results: We found different patterns of activation in the two groups. Group 1 (simple emotional tone discrimination) showed greater BOLD signal changes than group 2 (self attribution) in temporal areas (BA22−39−41), in frontal regions (BA9−11) and in limbic lobe (BA31). Conversely to group 2 that showed greater BOLD signal changes than group 1 in parietal areas (BA 2−40−43), in temporal lobe (BA22−38) and in frontal lobe (BA9). Conclusions: Self description mechanisms and moral stimuli recognition seem to activate different brain areas in depressed bipolar patients. Self referred emotional signals might also influence brain systems known to be critically implicated in the control of spatial attention, such as the frontal and parietal cortex. Cortical network in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and temporal regions contributes to the detection of behaviorally relevant or salient stimuli and limbic areas are involved in the emotional tone detection. Self-judgement selectively activated distinct subregions that are involved in self-focused attention as opposed to detection process involved in recognition emotional valence.