The Neurobiology of Self Appraisals and Social Cognition in Depressed Adolescents

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议研究的目标是研究自我和社会认知方面的神经基础--负面的自我评价和对负面情绪社会信号的高度关注--这些方面与理解青少年抑郁障碍的发展高度相关。持续的负面自我评价和对负面情绪社会信号(例如负面面部表情)的关注增加，是一生中患抑郁症风险的关键过程。这些过程与了解青春期抑郁的风险特别相关，因为这是一个自我评估和人际社会功能快速转变的时期，作为形成积极和连贯的自我表征这一关键发展任务的一部分。这一发育任务的次优解决方案与抑郁障碍的发病和复发以及青春期自杀的风险有关。因此，了解青少年抑郁症患者负性自我评价的神经基础和对负性面部表情的关注将有助于深入了解这一脆弱发育期抑郁症的具体神经机制，从而指导干预策略。此外，这项研究还将有助于确定青少年抑郁障碍的客观神经生物学标记物，这些标记物可在未来用于检测那些可能面临未来抑郁症风险最大的青少年或处于反复发作病程的青少年。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed study is to study the neural basis of aspects of self and social cognition - negative self appraisals and elevated attention to negative emotional social signals - that are highly relevant to understanding the development of adolescent depressive disorders. Persistently negative self appraisal and elevated attention to negative emotional social signals, (e.g. negative facial expressions) are key processes that denote risk for depressive disorders across the lifespan. These processes are particularly relevant to understanding risk for depression in adolescence, because this is a period during which there is rapid transformation in self appraisals and interpersonal social functioning as part of the key developmental task of forming a positive and coherent self representation. Suboptimal resolution of this developmental task is linked to onset and recurrence of depressive disorders and risks for suicide in adolescence. Therefore, understanding the neural basis of negative self appraisals and attention to negative facial expressions in adolescent depression will provide valuable insights into specific neural mechanisms of depression during this vulnerable developmental period to guide intervention strategies. Furthermore, this research will also help identify objective, neurobiological markers of adolescent depressive disorders that can be used in the future to detect those adolescents who may be most at risk of future depression or who are on a trajectory to a recurrent course of the illness.