Blunted superior temporal gyrus activity to negative emotional expression after mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for late-life depression.
Weijian Liu, Hui Li, Xiao Lin, Peng Li, Ximei Zhu, Sizhen Su, Jie Shi, Lin Lu, Jiahui Deng, Xinyu Sun
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 2022 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.1001447 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 60 |
| Population | Patients with late-life depression (LLD) receiving stable antidepressant medication |
| Interventions | Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) antidepressants |
| Duration | 8-week intervention, assessed before and after the trial |
| Measures | Positive affect (PA) scale, negative affect (NA) scale, facial emotion recognition task, fMRI scan |
| Topics | Depression Meditation |
| Keywords | Facial emotion recognition Late-life depression lld Neural mechanism |
| Key findings | Eight weeks of MBCT added to stable antidepressants increased positive affect and improved recognition accuracy and speed for angry and sad faces in patients with late-life depression, while treatment as usual produced no such recognition improvement; negative affect decreased in both groups. Changes in left superior temporal gyrus activation to negative emotional expressions differed between groups and correlated with increased positive affect, which the authors propose as a neural mechanism. |
Abstract
Facial emotion recognition plays an important role in social functioning. Patients with late-life depression (LLD) often have abnormal facial emotion recognition. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is beneficial in treating depression. This study examined whether MBCT can act as an effective augmentation of antidepressants and improve facial emotion recognition in patients with LLD and its underlying neural mechanism. Patients with LLD were randomized into two groups (n = 30 per group). The MBCT group received an eight-week MBCT in conjunction with stable medication treatment. The other group was treated as usual (TAU group) with stable medication treatment. The positive affect (PA) scale, negative affect (NA) scale, and facial emotion recognition task with an fMRI scan were performed before and after the trial. After eight weeks of treatment, the repeated ANOVA showed that the PA score in the MBCT group significantly increased [F (1,54) = 13.31, p = 0.001], but did not change significantly [F (1,54) = 0.58, p = 0.449] in the TAU group. The NA scores decreased significantly in both the MBCT group [F (1,54) = 19.01, p < 0.001] and the TAU group [F (1,54) = 16.16, p < 0.001]. Patients showed an increase in recognition accuracy and speed of angry and sad faces after 8 weeks of MBCT. No improvement was detected in the TAU group after treatment. A significant interaction effect was found in the change of activation of the left superior temporal gyrus (L-STG) to negative emotional expression between time and groups. Furthermore, a decrease in activation of L-STG to negative emotional expression was positively correlated with the increase in PA score. The MBCT is beneficial for improving affect status and facial emotion recognition in patients with LLD, and the L-STG is involved in this process.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on depression, most cited first.
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
- The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Interventions on Physiological Markers of Stress in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Synthesis Mindfulness December 2, 2025
- Both online and face-to-face mindfulness meditation can change cortical structure in internet gaming disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Research October 1, 2025
Cites 10
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- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Regulates Brain Connectivity in Patients With Late-Life Depression. Frontiers in Psychiatry 2022
- Effects of Sahaj Samadhi meditation on heart rate variability and depressive symptoms in patients with late-life depression. The British Journal of Psychiatry November 28, 2018
and 5 more in the library