fMRI Brain Response in Patients with Depression at the Time of Control of the Severity of Positive Social Emotions and Analysis of Behavioral Factors

The study presents functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data on the brain activity in depression and psycho-diagnostic indicators that characterize cognitive activity strategies of positive social emotion regulation. It was shown that fMRI activity of the brain during viewing of emotionally neutral and moderately positive images and searching for an optimal self-regulation strategy was associated with changes in activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Analysis of behavioral factors showed that strategies of searching for the optimal way of emotional self-regulation were closely related to the general style of behavior, level of uncertainty tolerance, and commitment. The integration of psycho-diagnostic and neuroimaging data allows deeper understanding of the mechanisms of emotions regulation that contributes to the optimization of protocols for the diagnosis and treatment of depressive disorders.