Functional neuroimaging studies have found abnormal anterior cingulate
activity in depressed subjects, and other studies have shown that the
cingulate gyrus becomes active in healthy subjects during interference
tasks. The authors hypothesized that subjects with mood disorder might show
blunted cingulate activation during the standard Stroop interference task
or during a modified version involving sadness-laden words. In contrast to
11 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects who activated the left
cingulate during the standard Stroop, 11 mood- disordered subjects
activated the right anterior cingulate gyrus only slightly and instead
showed increased activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal and visual
cortex. This study supports theories of blunted limbic and paralimbic
activation and abnormal cingulate activity in depression and adds to the
growing knowledge of the functional neuroanatomy of depression.Abstract Teaser