| Creators: |
Ethofer, Thomas and Straub, Silvia and Kreifelts, Benjamin and Koch, Katharina and Obermeyer, Lena and Stegmaier, Sophia and Erb, Michael and Scheffler, Klaus and Wildgruber, Dirk |
| Title: |
Neural processing of laughter in depression |
| Item Type: |
Article or issue of a publication series |
| Journal or Series Title: |
Scientific Reports : Sci Rep |
| Article: |
14724 |
| Additional Information: |
Open Access |
| Date: |
27 April 2025 |
| Divisions: |
Gesundheitsmanagement |
| Abstract (ENG): |
Laughter can convey social intent ranging from acceptance (friendly inclusive laughter) to rejection
(malign taunting laughter). We investigated perception of auditory and visual laughter in patients with
major depressive disorder (MDD) versus healthy controls (HC). 48 MDD patients and 52 HC rated 60
laughter recordings presented auditorily or visually regarding the expressed social intent during an
fMRI experiment at 3T. Depression severity was assessed based on questionnaires. MDD patients rated
the perceived social intent of the laughter significantly more negative than HC across both modalities.
The individual magnitude of this negativity bias of social intent attribution significantly correlated
with both depression severity as well as activation in anteromedial prefrontal cortex (AMPFC) during
perception of auditory laughter. MDD patients also exhibited a significantly reduced activation in
AMPFC and depression severity partially mediated effects on rating of auditory laughter as evidenced
by mediation analysis. Our results demonstrate altered perception of social intent expressed by
laughter in MDD. Neuroimaging data point to the AMPFC for mediation of this effect as its activity was
correlated with both depression severity and a negative attribution bias during perception of auditory
laughter. Furthermore, at group level activity in this area was reduced in MDD patients |
| Forthcoming: |
No |
| Language: |
English |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Laughter, Social intent, Rating, Depression, fMRI, Anteromedial prefrontal cortex |
| Link eMedia: |
Download |
| Citation: |
Ethofer, Thomas and Straub, Silvia and Kreifelts, Benjamin and Koch, Katharina and Obermeyer, Lena and Stegmaier, Sophia and Erb, Michael and Scheffler, Klaus and Wildgruber, Dirk
(2025)
Neural processing of laughter in depression.
Scientific Reports : Sci Rep, 15 (1), Art. 14724.
ISSN 2045-2322
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