A recent neuroimaging study has found that adolescents displaying heightened brain activity in response to emotionally charged tasks in the right inferior occipital gyrus, a brain region responsible for processing visual stimuli, tended to exhibit lower distress tolerance and increased levels of depressive symptoms two years later. The study was published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.
Distress tolerance, denoting the capacity to endure and effectively manage emotional distress, discomfort, or pain without resorting to harmful behaviors or becoming overwhelmed, is a pivotal psychological trait. Those possessing strong distress tolerance skills can navigate uncomfortable emotions without impulsive reactions or resorting to negative coping mechanisms.
Several studies have highlighted the role of distress tolerance in cultivating resilience against a variety of psychopathologies, including substance use, post-traumatic stress disorder, disordered eating, anxiety-related behaviors, and depression. Moreover, it plays a role in mitigating the impact of adverse life events on subsequent depressive symptoms.
On the other hand, emotional reactivity — the tendency to have strong, intense emotional responses in different situations — also impacts individual’s ability to tolerate distress. More emotionally reactive individuals tend to have lower distress tolerance.
Aiming to explore the relationship between neural markers of emotional reactivity in adolescents and their future distress tolerance, study authors Amanda C. Del Giacco and her colleagues conducted research to investigate the links between emotional reactivity, distress tolerance, and depressive symptoms. The researchers proposed that distress tolerance could potentially mediate the connection between emotional reactivity and depressive symptoms. While previous studies confirmed this link through psychological assessments, the authors sought to ascertain its presence when directly assessing emotional reactivity using brain imaging.
The study participants consisted of adolescents who were part of a larger longitudinal investigation into brain development. The study included 40 adolescents, with 16 being male, aged between 14 and 19 years.
Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while engaging in an emotional Go-NoGo task. This task involved displaying images of emotionally charged (happy or scared) faces as well as neutral faces to the participants. The participants were instructed to respond rapidly when a specific face type was presented while refraining from responding to other faces. The images were displayed for half a second, with intervals of 2 to 12 seconds between images. The researchers analyzed brain responses to the different face types and participants’ subsequent emotional ratings.
Two years after neuroimaging, participants completed assessments of distress tolerance and depression (the Children’s Depression Inventory or the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition).
Results showed that males had higher distress tolerance than females. Neither distress tolerance nor depression was associated with intelligence and age of participants. Participants who had higher distress tolerance tended to have much fewer depressive symptoms on average. Accuracy of responses in the Go/NoGo task was not associated with distress tolerance nor with symptoms of depression.
The results indicated that males exhibited higher distress tolerance than females. Neither distress tolerance nor depression showed associations with participants’ intelligence or age. Notably, higher distress tolerance correlated with notably fewer average depressive symptoms. Accuracy in the Go/NoGo task responses did not relate to distress tolerance or depressive symptoms.
Neuroimaging results revealed that participants with lower distress tolerance displayed heightened brain responses in the right inferior occipital gyrus region during the Go/NoGo task. This increased reactivity occurred when participants viewed both happy and scared faces. The researchers employed a statistical model suggesting that this augmented brain reactivity contributes to reduced distress tolerance, ultimately resulting in heightened depressive symptoms. The results demonstrated a tangible link between these factors is indeed possible.
The right inferior occipital gyrus, integral to recognizing shapes, colors, patterns, facial recognition, and reading comprehension, displayed increased reactivity, indicating that participants’ brains allocated more visual resources to processing emotional imagery. This intensified brain response was construed as indicative of heightened emotional reactivity in individuals.
The right inferior occipital gyrus region of the brain is involved in identifying shapes, colors, and patterns, as well as contributing to tasks like facial recognition and reading comprehension. Higher reactivity means that participant’s brain was devoting more visual resources to processing emotional images. The researchers interpret this greater intensity of brain response as an indicator of higher emotional reactivity of an individual.
“Results demonstrated greater brain response during emotion processing in the inferior occipital gyrus was associated with less distress tolerance and greater depression symptoms at a two-year follow-up. Additionally, post-hoc analyses demonstrated distress tolerance may mediate the relationship between emotional reactivity and depressive symptoms at a two-year follow-up. While we hypothesized greater engagement from cognitive control and salience networks in association with tolerance of distress, no additional clusters were found to be associated with follow-up distress tolerance,” the study authors concluded.
The study makes an important contribution to the scientific understanding of risk factors of depression. However, it should be noted that the number of participants in this study was relatively small. Additionally, the study did not include individuals suffering from major depressive disorder, but only individuals with whose levels of depressive symptoms were below clinical levels.
The paper “Heightened adolescent emotional reactivity in the brain is associated with lower future distress tolerance and higher depressive symptoms” was authored by Amanda C. Del Giacco, Scott A. Jones, Kristina O. Hernandez, Samantha J. Barnes, and Bonnie J. Nagel.
