Neural Mechanisms of Emotion Regulation Flexibility and Success in Everyday Life in Depression - Project Summary/Abstract Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Two recently discovered behavioral mechanisms of depression that are ripe for further exploration include: (1) ineffective use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies that fail to appropriately modulate emotional states, and (2) inflexible adaptation of behavior to meet contextual demands. There exists a novel opportunity to integrate these two lines of work to examine whether individuals with a history of depression show inflexible adaptation of their use of ER strategies to meet contextual demands (i.e., ER inflexibility), to clarify trait risk factors for depression that confer risk for depression recurrence. This project plans to utilize existing data from a NIH-funded study that includes individuals with a history of depression and individuals with no history of a psychiatric disorder. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected. The proposed study's specific aims are to: (1a) develop a theoretically-relevant and ecologically-valid measure of ER flexibility in everyday life using EMA, (1b) examine whether ER flexibility predicts ER success in everyday life, (2) elucidate neural mechanisms of real-world ER flexibility by examining static and dynamic brain functional connectivity during rest, (3) identify cognitive control brain mechanisms underlying real-world ER flexibility by examining functional activation during an inhibition task, and (4) determine if real-world ER inflexibility (and its neural correlates) contribute to reduced ER success in individuals with a history of depression. Through developing a measure of real-world ER flexibility, findings from this study will allow us to examine how people vary their engagement in ER strategies based on contextual demands in everyday life, and whether this dimensionally relates to successful ER. Findings from this study will also elucidate the precise neurocognitive underpinnings of real-world ER flexibility, which will provide important insight for novel and ecologically-valid treatment targets for depression. These targeted treatments could have the potential to increase ER flexibility and thus improve ER success and reduce risk for depression recurrence. The proposed study will advance the applicant's training in multimodal data integration; fMRI study design and data collection, preprocessing, and analysis; advanced statistical measurement and analysis with multilevel EMA data; and grant-writing. Research training will occur at the University of Southern California, under the mentorship of well-established interdisciplinary experts. Completion of these training goals will position the applicant to pursue an independent research career at an R1 institution focused on investigating biobehavioral mechanisms underlying ineffective emotion regulation in affective disorders.
