The Neurobiology of Self Appraisals and Social Cognition in Depressed Adolescents

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的目的是研究自我认知和社会认知的神经基础——消极的自我评价和对消极情绪社会信号的高度关注——这与理解青少年抑郁症的发展高度相关。持续消极的自我评价和对消极情绪社会信号（如消极的面部表情）的高度关注是表明一生中患抑郁症风险的关键过程。这些过程与理解青少年抑郁风险特别相关，因为这是自我评价和人际社会功能快速转变的时期，是形成积极和连贯的自我表现的关键发展任务的一部分。这一发展任务的次优解决与青春期抑郁症的发作和复发以及自杀风险有关。因此，了解青少年抑郁症负性自我评价和消极面部表情注意的神经基础，将为了解这一脆弱发展期抑郁症的具体神经机制提供有价值的见解，以指导干预策略。此外，这项研究还将有助于确定青少年抑郁症的客观神经生物学标记物，这些标记物可以在未来用于检测那些可能最有可能患抑郁症的青少年，或者那些处于疾病复发轨道上的青少年。

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.