Left DLPFC activation in the association between psychological resilience and depressive symptoms in college students.

Abstract

The prevalence of depressive symptoms among college students continues to rise. It has been shown that individuals with higher psychological resilience generally exhibit fewer depressive symptoms. The aim of this study is to examine potential associations between psychological resilience and depressive symptoms in college students and to explore the statistical mediating of brain activation in this relationship. 140 college students received functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) scans while completing a verbal fluency task (VFT). Psychological scales, oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) concentration, partial correlation and mediation analyses were processed. Partial correlation analysis showed that psychological resilience was significantly negatively associated with depressive symptoms. The activation of HbO in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC; CH23), right DLPFC (CH3), and right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC; CH6) were significantly positively correlated with psychological resilience and negatively correlated with depressive symptoms. Further mediation analyses demonstrated a significant indirect association between psychological resilience and depressive symptoms through activation in the left DLPFC (CH23). The findings suggest that the left DLPFC may be involved in the relationship between psychological resilience and depressive symptoms in college students. Future longitudinal or intervention studies are needed to further clarify the causal relationships among these variables.