Static and dynamic functional connectivity of the prefrontal cortex during resting-state predicts self-serving bias in depression

Major depression disorder (MDD) is characterized by the lack of self-serving bias, which may inherently underlie the onset and maintenance of depression. Emerging neuroimaging evidences have indicated that the altered self-processing in MDD may be germane to the dysfunctional static resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Although static RSFC studies provide tremendous amounts of evidences on functional changes in depression, explorations of dynamic RSFC among the PFC and other brain regions may elucidate the temporal changes of neural activities associated with depression. To further explore the behavioral and neural correlates of self-serving bias, 21 depressed and 23 non-depressed individuals underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan and completed a self-serving bias task. Static and dynamic RSFC analyses were conducted for specific subregions of the PFC, including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the ventral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex. Depressed patients showed an attenuated self-serving bias as compared with controls, and aberrant static and dynamic RSFC among these subregions of the PFC. In particular, the self-serving bias was associated with static dmPFC-to-OFC RSFC and dynamic vlPFC-to-OFC RSFC for MDD group. The aberrant RSFC of the PFC may serve as a predictor for self-serving bias in depression.