Imagine you have a magical potion that can transform your emotions and improve your ability to understand others. That’s what mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) may be for people with late-life depression (LLD). In a recent study, researchers wanted to see if MBCT could enhance the effects of antidepressants and help improve facial emotion recognition in patients with LLD. They divided the participants into two groups: one received MBCT alongside medication, while the other followed a standard treatment plan with medication alone. After eight weeks, the MBCT group experienced increased positive affect (PA), while the standard treatment group showed no significant change. Both groups saw a decrease in negative affect (NA). Interestingly, only the MBCT group showed improvements in recognizing angry and sad facial expressions. The study also found that the left superior temporal gyrus (L-STG), a brain region involved in processing emotions, became less active when viewing negative expressions. This reduction in L-STG activation was linked to the increase in PA scores. These findings suggest that MBCT can be a powerful tool for improving emotional well-being and social functioning in people with LLD. To learn more about this exciting research, check out the full article!

Facial emotion recognition plays an important role in social functioning. Patients with late-life depression (LLD) often have abnormal facial emotion recognition. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is beneficial in treating depression. This study examined whether MBCT can act as an effective augmentation of antidepressants and improve facial emotion recognition in patients with LLD and its underlying neural mechanism. Patients with LLD were randomized into two groups (n = 30 per group). The MBCT group received an eight-week MBCT in conjunction with stable medication treatment. The other group was treated as usual (TAU group) with stable medication treatment. The positive affect (PA) scale, negative affect (NA) scale, and facial emotion recognition task with an fMRI scan were performed before and after the trial. After eight weeks of treatment, the repeated ANOVA showed that the PA score in the MBCT group significantly increased [F(1,54) = 13.31, p = 0.001], but did not change significantly [F(1,54) = 0.58, p = 0.449] in the TAU group. The NA scores decreased significantly in both the MBCT group [F(1,54) = 19.01, p < 0.001] and the TAU group [F(1,54) = 16.16, p < 0.001]. Patients showed an increase in recognition accuracy and speed of angry and sad faces after 8 weeks of MBCT. No improvement was detected in the TAU group after treatment. A significant interaction effect was found in the change of activation of the left superior temporal gyrus (L-STG) to negative emotional expression between time and groups. Furthermore, a decrease in activation of L-STG to negative emotional expression was positively correlated with the increase in PA score. The MBCT is beneficial for improving affect status and facial emotion recognition in patients with LLD, and the L-STG is involved in this process.

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