Neurostructural correlates of dispositional self-compassion

Self-compassion and neural activity during self-appraisals in depressed and healthy adolescents

BACKGROUND

Depression is one of the most concerning mental disorders in youth. Because atypical excessive neural activity during self-referential processing is often implicated in depression, identifying psychological factors that link to lower depression and less excessive neural activity during self-referential processing is critical for treatment development. This study examined the relationship between self-compassion - a protective factor of youth depression - and neural activity during self-appraisals, a well-established experimental paradigm for studying self-referential processing, and their associations with depression severity in depressed and healthy youth.

METHODS

The sample consisted of 115 youth (79 met the clinical diagnosis of depression; 36 were matched healthy controls) aged from 11 to 17 years (68 females). Self-compassion and depression severity were measured with self-reported scales. In the scanner, participants were asked to judge whether the phrases they heard described them from four perspectives (self, mother, classmate, and best friend).

RESULTS

Higher self-compassion was associated with lower PCC/precuneus activity especially during negatively-valenced self-appraisals and explained its association with reduced depression severity. In depressed youth, higher self-compassion was associated with lower superior temporal gyrus/operculum/postcentral gyrus/insula activity especially during positively-valenced self-appraisals. In healthy youth, higher self-compassion was associated with higher activity in these regions.

CONCLUSIONS

Self-compassion was associated with less excessive experiential immersion and/or autobiographical memory retrieval during negative self-appraisals. Neural stimulation interventions targeting PCC/precuneus activity during negative self-appraisals combined with behavioral interventions targeting self-compassion could be a promising approach to youth depression treatment.

Self-compassion is associated with the superior longitudinal fasciculus in the mirroring network in healthy individuals

Self-compassion (SC) involves taking an emotionally positive attitude towards oneself when suffering. Although SC has positive effects on mental well-being as well as a protective role in preventing symptoms in healthy individuals, few studies on white matter (WM) microstructures in neuroimaging studies of SC has been studied. Brain imaging data were acquired from 71 healthy participants. WM regions of mirroring network were analyzed using tract-based spatial statistics. After the WM regions associated with SC were extracted, exploratory correlation analysis with the self-forgiveness scale, the coping scale, and the world health organization quality of life scale abbreviated version was performed. We found that self-compassion scale total scores were negatively correlated with the fractional anisotropy (FA) values of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) in healthy individuals. The self-kindness and mindfulness subscale scores were also negatively correlated with FA values of the same regions. These FA values were negatively correlated with the total scores of self-forgiveness scale, and self-control coping strategy and confrontation coping strategy. Our findings suggest levels of SC may be associated with WM microstructural changes of SLF in healthy individuals. These lower WM microstructures may be associated with positive personal attitudes, such as self-forgiveness, self-control and active confrontational strategies.

Individual Differences in Pain Catastrophizing and Regional Gray Matter Volume Among Community-dwelling Adults With Chronic Pain: A Voxel-based Morphology Study

OBJECTIVES

Elevations in pain catastrophizing (PC) are associated with more severe pain, emotional distress, and impairment within samples with chronic pain. However, brain structure correlates underlying individual differences in PC are not well understood and predict more severe pain and impairment within samples with chronic pain. This study assessed links between regional gray matter volume (GMV) and individual differences in PC within a large mixed chronic pain sample.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Chinese adult community dwellers with chronic pain of at least 3 months duration (101 women and 59 men) completed self-report measures of background characteristics, pain severity, depression, and a widely validated PC questionnaire as well as a structural magnetic resonance imagining scan featuring voxel-based morphology to assess regional GMV correlates of PC.

RESULTS

After controlling for demographic correlates of PC, pain severity, and depression, higher PC scores had a significant, unique association with lower GMV levels in the inferior temporal area of the right fusiform gyrus, a region previously implicated in emotion regulation.

DISCUSSION

GMV deficits, particularly in right temporal-occipital emotion regulation regions, correspond to high levels of PC among individuals with chronic pain.

Concurrent TMS-EEG and EEG reveal neuroplastic and oscillatory changes associated with self-compassion and negative emotions

Background/Objective

Self-compassion has a consensual relevance for overall mental health, but its mechanisms remain unknown. Using intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) and concurrent transcranial magnetic stimulation-electroencephalography (TMS-EEG), this study investigated the causal relationship of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) with self-compassion and explored the changes in neuroplasticity and neural dynamics.

Method

Thirty-two healthy participants received iTBS or sham stimulation over the DLPFC, before and after which they were instructed to either use self-compassionate strategies or to be rejected in the context of social rejection and to report the level of self-compassion or negative affect. TMS-evoked potentials were evaluated as novel neuroplastic techniques with N45, P60, N100, and P180.

Results

iTBS uniquely decreased P180 amplitude measured with TMS-EEG whereby sham stimulation had no effect on neuroplasticity. In line with neuroplasticity changes, iTBS enhanced a widespread gamma band power and coherence, which correlated consistently with increased engagement in self-compassion. Meanwhile, iTBS demonstrated opposite effects on theta activity dependent on the social contexts whereby self-compassion decreased and social rejection enhanced it respectively. This unique effect of iTBS on theta activity was also supplemented by the enhancement of theta band coherence following iTBS.

Conclusions

We found a causal relationship between DLPFC and self-compassion. We also provide evidence to indicate widespread gamma activity and connectivity to correlate with self-compassion as well as the critical role of the DLPFC in modulating theta activity and negative emotions.

Resilience in the Ranks: Trait Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Buffer the Deleterious Effects of Envy on Mental Health Symptoms among Public Safety Personnel

Public safety personnel (PSP) face frequent stressors that increase their risk of developing symptoms of depression and anxiety. In addition to being exposed to potentially traumatic events, PSP trainees may face a compounded risk of developing mental health symptoms, as their training environments are conducive to social comparisons and the resultant painful emotion of envy. Envy is associated with numerous negative health and occupational outcomes. Fortunately, there are several individual difference factors associated with increased emotional regulation, and such factors may offer resilience against the damaging mental health effects of envy. In this study, we examined the interplay between dispositional mindfulness, self-compassion, and dispositional envy in predicting job satisfaction, stress, experience of positive and negative emotions, subjective resilience, and symptoms of depression and anxiety in a sample of police trainees (n = 104). A substantial minority of trainees reported clinically significant symptoms of depression (n = 19:18.3%) and anxiety (n = 24:23.1%) in accordance with the cut-off scores on screening measures. Consistent with hypotheses, dispositional envy was associated with lower job satisfaction, greater stress, and greater anxiety and depression. Furthermore, envy was associated with higher negative emotions, lower positive emotions, and lower subjective resilience. Dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion were associated with greater job satisfaction, lower stress, and reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety. Moreover, mindfulness and self-compassion were both associated with lower negative emotions, higher positive emotions, and subjective resilience. The associations between envy and the relevant job and mental health outcomes were significantly diminished after controlling for mindfulness and self-compassion. This suggests that these protective traits may serve as transdiagnostic buffers to the effects of envy on mental health. The results of this study confirmed the damaging effects of envy and suggested the potential remediation of these effects through the cultivation of mindfulness and self-compassion.

Neural substrates of rewarding and punishing self representations in depressed suicide-attempting adolescents

Adolescence is a period of plasticity in neural substrates underpinning self-processing. Such substrates are worth studying in depressed youth at risks for suicide because altered neurobiology of self-processing might partially explain differences between suicide attempting youth versus youth who contemplate but do not attempt suicide. Understanding altered substrates of self-processing among depressed adolescents with suicide attempts is critical for developing targeted prevention and treatment. Healthy youth (N = 40), youth with depression and low (N = 33) or high suicide ideation (N = 28), and youth with depression and past suicide attempt (N = 28) heard positive or negative self-descriptors during fMRI and evaluated them from their own, their mother's, classmates', and best friend's perspectives. Lower bilateral caudate activity during positive self-processing distinguished suicide attempting adolescents from all other youth. Higher bilateral caudate activity during negatively valenced self-processing tended to distinguish youth with depression. Blunted reward circuitry during positive vs. negative self-related material tended to distinguish suicide attempting youth, reflecting potentially enhanced behavioral preparedness for punishing vs. rewarding self-relevant cues.

Self-prioritization is supported by interactions between large-scale brain networks

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has provided solid evidence that the default-mode network (DMN) is implicated in self-referential processing. The functional connectivity of the DMN has also been observed in tasks where self-referential processing leads to self-prioritization (SPE) in perception and decision-making. However, we are less certain about whether (i) SPE solely depends on the interplay within parts of the DMN or is driven by multiple brain networks; and (ii) whether SPE is associated with a unique component of interconnected networks or can be explained by related effects such as emotion prioritization. We addressed these questions by identifying and comparing topological clusters of networks involved in self-and emotion prioritization effects generated in an associative-matching task. Using network-based statistics, we found that SPE controlled by emotion is supported by a unique component of interacting networks, including the medial prefrontal part of the DMN (MPFC), Frontoparietal network (FPN) and insular Salience network (SN). This component emerged as a result of a focal effect confined to few connections, indicating that interaction between DMN, FPC and SN is critical to cognitive operations for the SPE. This result was validated on a separate data set. In contrast, prioritization of happy emotion was associated with a component formed by interactions between the rostral prefrontal part of SN, posterior parietal part of FPN and the MPFC, while sad emotion reveals a cluster of the DMN, Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) and Visual Medial Network (VMN). We discussed theoretical and methodological aspects of these findings within the more general domain of social cognition.