Can't get it off my brain: Meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on perseverative cognition. (30th January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Makovac, Elena; Fagioli, Sabrina; Rae, Charlotte L.; Critchley, Hugo D.; Ottaviani, Cristina
• Is Part Of: Psychiatry research. Volume 295(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-01-30
• Subjects: Rumination -- Worry -- fMRI -- Activation likelihood estimation; Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Brain -- Imaging -- Periodicals; Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Diagnostic Imaging -- Periodicals; Psychiatrie -- Périodiques; Cerveau -- Imagerie pour le diagnostic -- Périodiques; 616.890754
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2019.111020
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0925-4927

Abstract

Highlights: The brain circuits underlying perseverative cognition (PC) are still unidentified. ALE meta-analysis was used to clarify its neurobiological basis across diagnoses. PC was coupled with engagement of brain areas involved in self-referential activity. Present results support the transdiagnostic nature of PC. Abstract: Perseverative cognition (i.e. rumination and worry) describes intrusive, uncontrollable, repetitive thoughts. These negative affective experiences are accompanied by physiological arousal, as if the individual were facing an external stressor. Perseverative cognition is a transdiagnostic symptom, yet studies of neural mechanisms are largely restricted to specific clinical populations (e.g. patients with major depression). The present study applied activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses to 43 functional neuroimaging studies of perseverative cognition to elucidate the neurobiological substrates across individuals with and without psychopathological conditions. Task-related and resting state functional connectivity studies were examined in separate meta-analyses. Across task-based studies, perseverative cognition engaged medial frontal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, insula, and posterior cingulate cortex. Resting state functional connectivity studies similarly implicated posterior cingulate cortex together with thalamus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), yet the involvement of ACC distinguished between perseverative cognition in healthy controls (HC) and clinical groups. Perseverative cognition is accompanied by the engagement of prefrontal, insula and cingulate regions, whose interaction may support the characteristic conjunction of self-referential and affective processing with (aberrant) cognitive control and embodied (autonomic) arousal. Within this context, ACC engagement appears critical for the pathological expression of rumination and worry.