Early adolescents’ Attention to Emotion and Brain Network Integration Predict Later Depression (2024)

Undergraduate: Yijing Lin

Faculty Advisor: Kristen Lindquist
Department: Psychology and Neuroscience

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In adults, network integration of the Allostatic interoceptive brain network (AIN) has been associated with regulation and awareness of visceral states (Kleckner et al 2018; Zhang et al 2023). Adolescence is a time when connectivity in key subnetworks of the AIN increases, and when emotions become more turbulent. There is initial evidence that in early adolescence, AIN global efficiency at rest prospectively predicts the onset of depression (Frye et al. in prep). However, it is unknown to what extent individual differences in constructs such as emotional clarity, or emotional attention might also contribute to this relationship. We hypothesize that greater AIN global efficiency in adolescents will predict greater emotional clarity and attention which, in turn, will predict lesser emotional dysregulation. To test this hypothesis, we will use data collected from 117 adolescents (Mage= 12.88, SD= 0.49) who completed a resting state fMRI scan and self-reported measures of emotional expertise (emotional clarity and attention), and several measures of emotional experience, including emotional reactivity and depression. Results promise to expand our knowledge about the role of AIN network connectivity and other important individual difference variables such as emotional attention.

Link to Abstract