G. Northoff. Universität Magdeburg Klinik für Psychiatric, Magdeburg, Germany

Objective: The symposium aims at demonstrating the neuropsychological and neuroanatomical correlates of abnormal affective- cognitive interaction in depression. Therefore, different studies in functional imaging and neuropsychology investigating affective-cognitive interaction will be presented. Dr.H.Boeker demonstrates attentional dysfunction in depression in neuropsychological studies. Dr.Grimm will present neuropsychological and imaging results showing disturbed emotional processing in ventral prefrontal cortex (VPC). Hyperactivation in medial regions is accompanied by hypoactivation in lateral regions of the ventral prefrontal cortex. Dr.Bermpohl investigated the modulation of emotional processing by preceding attention. He showed abnormal attentional modulation of neural activity in VPC in depression. Dr.Northoff presents imaging data about abnormal deactivation in depression in VPC by attentional modulation of emotional judgment. Based on correlation findings, such abnormal deactivation in depression in VPC by attentional modulation might be related to the abnormal focus on negative emotions and the inability to shift to positive emotions. In summary, the symposium reveals abnormal function in VPC as a crucial neural correlate of altered affective-cognitive interaction in major depression.