Compared to healthy controls, adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) showed stronger activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in resolving emotional conflict. Whether subthreshold depression (StD) at an advanced age is also accompanied by similar changes in brain activation in coping with emotional conflict remained unknown.

By using face-word Stroop task, the current study explored the neural correlates of emotional interference processing in old adults with StD.

Participants were 19 community-dwelling older adults with StD assessed by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D) scores. We collected magnetic resonance images of their brain compared to images of 18 healthy aged-matched adults. We used SPM to analyze differences in brain activations in emotional interference processing between the two groups.

Results showed that elderly individuals with StD have stronger activation in DLPFC, ACC, default mode network (DMN) and visual extrastriate cortex compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, the brain activations of the DLPFC, DMN and visual extrastriate cortex were significantly associated with participants’ behavioral interference effect in StD.

Stronger brain activation in DLPFC, ACC, DMN and extrastriate cortex in old adults with StD suggests that the working efficiency of their brain is quite low and their cognitive control is impaired to some extent.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.