2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
A social defeat model to identify neural markers of human depression vulnerability
| Project/Area Number |
20K07723
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 51020:Cognitive and brain science-related
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| Research Institution | Hiroshima University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | interoception / social cognition / social personality / biomarkers / depression / anxiety / mental health / brain structure |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Due to the COVID pandemic and restrictions to conduct experiments with human participants we were unable to conduct part of the proposed project the experiment that would investigate the neural basis of our social defeat task. However, the other part of the project analyzed social databases and identified four social personality traits that significantly predict depressive and social anxiety symptoms: social mindfulness, self-esteem, social responsiveness and trust (published as Fermin et al, 2022, Scientific Reports). We found, for instance that reduced social trust can predict depressive symptoms one year in advance and is linked with abnormalities in brain structures.
Finally, we published on theoretical paper (Fermin, Friston & Yamawaki, 2022, Royal Society Open Science) to propose how visceral and physiological information represented in the brain insular cortex interacts other brain regions involved in social cognition to contribute to mental health.
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| Free Research Field |
Neuroscience
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
Our analyzes of social databases and neuroimaging data revealed that social personality traits can be used as social markers to predict the development of mental health problems at least one year in advance. This finding can be used for the development of social policies to prevent health problems.
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