Associations between repetitive negative thinking and resting-state network segregation among healthy middle-aged adults

Background: Repetitive Negative Thinking (RNT) includes negative thoughts about the future and past, and is a risk factor for depression and anxiety. Prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices have been linked to RNT but several regions within large-scale networks are also involved, the efficiency of which depends on their ability to remain segregated.

Methods: Associations between RNT and system segregation (SyS) of the Anterior Salience Network (ASN), Default Mode Network (DMN) and Executive Control Network (ECN) were explored in healthy middle-aged adults (N = 341), after undergoing resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Regression analyses were conducted with RNT as outcome variable. Explanatory variables were: SyS, depression, emotional stability, cognitive complaints, age and sex.

Results: Analyses indicated that RNT was associated with depression, emotional stability, cognitive complaints, age and segregation of the left ECN (LECN) and ASN. Further, the ventral DMN (vDMN) presented higher connectivity with the ASN and decreased connectivity with the LECN, as a function of RNT.

Conclusion: Higher levels of perseverative thinking were related to increased segregation of the LECN and decreased segregation of the ASN. The dissociative connectivity of these networks with the vDMN may partially account for poorer cognitive control and increased self-referential processes characteristic of RNT.