Intracranial neurophysiological correlates of rumination: A cross-sectional observational study

Rumination is a transdiagnostic psychological process that plays a prominent role in many common psychiatric disorders, albeit its neurophysiological basis remains elusive. Existing neuroimaging studies have highlighted the precuneus and hippocampus as two pivotal brain regions in rumination’s neural underpinnings. Here, we examined the intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) recordings from 21 patients with epilepsy during a naturalistic, continuous, active rumination state and measured the low frequency (1–8 Hz) and high gamma (70–150 Hz) band oscillation powers. We observed enhanced low-frequency power in the precuneus and reduced high gamma power in the hippocampus during the rumination condition compared to the control condition. The hippocampal high gamma power reduction was associated with the self-reported reflection tendency. Our findings provided empirical evidence of the neurophysiological underpinnings of rumination and implicated a precuneus-hippocampus coupling across neural oscillation bands during an active rumination state.