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Ren X, White EJ, Nacke M, Mayeli A, Touthang J, Al Zoubi O, Kuplicki R, Victor TA, Paulus MP, Aupperle RL, Stewart JL. Blunted stimulus-preceding negativity during reward anticipation in major depressive disorder. J Affect Disord 2024; 362:779-787. [PMID: 39029684 PMCID: PMC11316661 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.07.060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2023] [Revised: 06/24/2024] [Accepted: 07/14/2024] [Indexed: 07/21/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Reward processing dysfunction is a core characteristic of major depressive disorder (MDD), yet event-related potential (ERP) research in MDD has predominantly focused on reward receipt as opposed to anticipation. The stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) ERP reflects anticipatory brain processing. This study examines whether individuals with MDD exhibit deficits during reward anticipation as evidenced by altered SPN amplitude. METHODS We assessed prefeedback-SPN amplitudes during a monetary incentive delay (MID) task in individuals with MDD (n = 142, 99 with comorbid anxiety disorders [MDD + ANX]) compared to Controls (n = 37). A mixed analysis of variance was performed on prefeedback-SPN amplitude and behavioral measures, with group (MDD, MDD + ANX, Control) as the between-subjects factor, and feedback (gain, loss) and electrode (F3, F4, Fz, C3, C4, Cz, P3, P4, Pz) as within-subjects factors. RESULTS A group main effect revealed faster reaction times for the Control group than MDD and MDD + ANX groups. A group x feedback interaction indicated that the MDD subgroup had smaller prefeedback-SPN amplitudes than MDD + ANX and Control groups when anticipating gain feedback. Additionally, individuals with current MDD, irrespective of past MDD and comorbid anxiety, exhibited smaller SPN amplitudes than Controls prior to gain feedback. LIMITATIONS The MID paradigm, designed for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquisition, lacks optimization for ERP analysis. Moreover, the clinical groups included more females than the Control group. CONCLUSIONS Reduced resource allocation to reward anticipation may differentiate MDD from MDD + ANX and Control groups. Further investigation of the neural mechanisms of distinct MDD phenotypes is warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xi Ren
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States.
| | - Evan J White
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States; Oxley College of Health and Natural Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, United States
| | - Mariah Nacke
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States
| | - Ahmad Mayeli
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States; Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
| | - James Touthang
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States
| | - Obada Al Zoubi
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Rayus Kuplicki
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States
| | - Teresa A Victor
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States
| | - Martin P Paulus
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States; Oxley College of Health and Natural Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, United States
| | - Robin L Aupperle
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States; Oxley College of Health and Natural Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, United States
| | - Jennifer L Stewart
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States; Oxley College of Health and Natural Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, United States
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2
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Lyu C, Lyu X, Gong Q, Gao B, Wang Y. Neural activation signatures in individuals with subclinical depression: A task-fMRI meta-analysis. J Affect Disord 2024; 362:104-113. [PMID: 38909758 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.06.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2023] [Revised: 04/30/2024] [Accepted: 06/14/2024] [Indexed: 06/25/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Previous task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (task-fMRI) investigations have documented abnormal brain activation associated with subclinical depression (SD), defined as a clinically relevant level of depressive symptoms that does not meet the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder. However, these task-fMRI studies have not reported consistent conclusions. Performing a voxel-based meta-analysis of task-fMRI studies may yield reliable findings. METHODS We extracted the peak coordinates and t values of included studies and analyzed brain activation between individuals with SD and healthy controls (HCs) using anisotropic effect-size signed differential mapping (AES-SDM). RESULTS A systematic literature search identified eight studies, including 266 individuals with SD and 281 HCs (aged 14 to 25). The meta-analysis showed that individuals with SD exhibited significantly greater activation in the right lenticular nucleus and putamen according to task-fMRI. The meta-regression analysis revealed a negative correlation between the proportion of females in a group and activation in the right striatum. LIMITATIONS The recruitment criteria for individuals with SD, type of tasks and MRI acquisition parameters of included studies were heterogeneous. The results should be interpreted cautiously due to insufficient included studies. CONCLUSION Our findings suggest that individuals with SD exhibit increased activation in the right lenticular nucleus, putamen and striatum, which may indicate a compensatory increase in response to an impairment of insular and striatal function caused by depression. These results provide valuable insights into the potential pathophysiology of brain dysfunction in SD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cui Lyu
- Department of Psychiatry, Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China
| | - Xinyue Lyu
- Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China
| | - Qiyong Gong
- Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China; Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Bo Gao
- Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China; Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China.
| | - Yiming Wang
- Department of Psychiatry, Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China.
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3
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Peng X, Trambaiolli LR, Choi EY, Lehman JF, Linn G, Russ BE, Schroeder CE, Haber SN, Liu H. Cross-species striatal hubs: linking anatomy to resting-state connectivity. Neuroimage 2024:120866. [PMID: 39322095 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120866] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2024] [Revised: 08/13/2024] [Accepted: 09/23/2024] [Indexed: 09/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Corticostriatal connections are essential for motivation, cognition, and behavioral flexibility. There is broad interest in using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to link circuit dysfunction in these connections with neuropsychiatric disorders. In this paper, we used tract-tracing data from non-human primates (NHPs) to assess the likelihood of monosynaptic connections being represented in rs-fMRI data of NHPs and humans. We also demonstrated that existing hub locations in the anatomical data can be identified in the rs-fMRI data from both species. To characterize this in detail, we mapped the complete striatal projection zones from 27 tract-tracer injections located in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), ventrolateral PFC (vlPFC), and dorsal PFC (dPFC) of macaque monkeys. Rs-fMRI seeds at the same regions of NHP and homologous regions of human brains showed connectivity maps in the striatum mostly consistent with those observed in the tracer data. We then examined the location of overlap in striatal projection zones. The medial rostral dorsal caudate connected with all five frontocortical regions evaluated in this study in both modalities (tract-tracing and rs-fMRI) and species (NHP and human). Other locations in the caudate also presented an overlap of four frontocortical regions, suggesting the existence of different locations with lower levels of input diversity. Small retrograde tracer injections and rs-fMRI seeds in the striatum confirmed these cortical input patterns. This study sets the ground for future studies evaluating rs-fMRI in clinical samples to measure anatomical corticostriatal circuit dysfunction and identify connectional hubs to provide more specific treatment targets for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaolong Peng
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, USA
| | - Lucas R Trambaiolli
- McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA; University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry, Rochester, USA
| | - Eun Young Choi
- Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, USA
| | - Julia F Lehman
- University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry, Rochester, USA
| | - Gary Linn
- Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, USA
| | - Brian E Russ
- Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, USA
| | | | - Suzanne N Haber
- McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA; University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry, Rochester, USA.
| | - Hesheng Liu
- Changping Laboratory, Beijing, China; Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center, Peking University, Beijing, China.
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4
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Yi W, Chen W, Lan B, Yan L, Hu X, Wu J. A U-shaped relationship between chronic academic stress and the dynamics of reward processing. Neuroimage 2024; 300:120849. [PMID: 39265955 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120849] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2024] [Revised: 08/29/2024] [Accepted: 09/09/2024] [Indexed: 09/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Despite the potential link between stress-induced reward dysfunctions and the development of mental problems, limited human research has investigated the specific impacts of chronic stress on the dynamics of reward processing. Here we aimed to investigate the relationship between chronic academic stress and the dynamics of reward processing (i.e., reward anticipation and reward consumption) using event-related potential (ERP) technology. Ninety healthy undergraduates who were preparing for the National Postgraduate Entrance Examination (NPEE) participated in the study and completed a two-door reward task, their chronic stress levels were assessed via the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). The results showed that a lower magnitude of reward elicited more negative amplitudes of cue-N2 during the anticipatory phase, and reward omission elicited more negative amplitudes of FRN compared to reward delivery especially in high reward conditions during the consummatory phase. More importantly, the PSS score exhibited a U-shaped relationship with cue-N2 amplitudes regardless of reward magnitude during the anticipatory phase; and FRN amplitudes toward reward omission in high reward condition during the consummatory phase. These findings suggest that individuals exposed to either low or high levels of chronic stress, as opposed to moderate stress levels, exhibited a heightened reward anticipation, and an augmented violation of expectations or affective response when faced with relatively more negative outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Yi
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, 3688#, Nanhai Avenue, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Wangxiao Chen
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, 3688#, Nanhai Avenue, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Biqi Lan
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, 3688#, Nanhai Avenue, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Linlin Yan
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Xiaoqing Hu
- Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Room 6.62, Jocky Club Tower, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
| | - Jianhui Wu
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, 3688#, Nanhai Avenue, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518060, China.
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5
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Zhang C, Kúkeľová D, Sigrist H, Hengerer B, Kratzer RF, Mracek P, Omrani A, von Heimendahl M, Pryce CR. Orphan receptor-GPR52 inverse agonist efficacy in ameliorating chronic stress-related deficits in reward motivation and phasic accumbal dopamine activity in mice. Transl Psychiatry 2024; 14:363. [PMID: 39242529 PMCID: PMC11379876 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-024-03081-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2024] [Revised: 08/22/2024] [Accepted: 08/28/2024] [Indexed: 09/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Reward processing dysfunctions e.g., anhedonia, apathy, are common in stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders including depression and schizophrenia, and there are currently no established therapies. One potential therapeutic approach is restoration of reward anticipation during appetitive behavior, deficits in which co-occur with attenuated nucleus accumbens (NAc) activity, possibly due to NAc inhibition of mesolimbic dopamine (DA) signaling. Targeting NAc regulation of ventral tegmental area (VTA) DA neuron responsiveness to reward cues could involve either the direct or indirect-via ventral pallidium (VP)-pathways. One candidate is the orphan G protein-coupled receptor GPR52, expressed by DA receptor 2 NAc neurons that project to VP. In mouse brain-slice preparations, GPR52 inverse agonist (GPR52-IA) attenuated evoked inhibitory postsynaptic currents at NAc-VP neurons, which could disinhibit VTA DA neurons. A mouse model in which chronic social stress leads to reduced reward learning and effortful motivation was applied to investigate GPR52-IA behavioral effects. Control and chronically stressed mice underwent a discriminative learning test of tone-appetitive behavior-sucrose reinforcement: stress reduced appetitive responding and discriminative learning, and these anticipatory behaviors were dose-dependently reinstated by GPR52-IA. The same mice then underwent an effortful motivation test of operant behavior-tone-sucrose reinforcement: stress reduced effortful motivation and GPR52-IA dose-dependently restored it. In a new cohort, GRABDA-sensor fibre photometry was used to measure NAc DA activity during the motivation test: in stressed mice, reduced motivation co-occurred with attenuated NAc DA activity specifically to the tone that signaled reinforcement of effortful behavior, and GPR52-IA ameliorated both deficits. These findings: (1) Demonstrate preclinical efficacy of GPR52 inverse agonism for stress-related deficits in reward anticipation during appetitive behavior. (2) Suggest that GPR52-dependent disinhibition of the NAc-VP-VTA-NAc circuit, leading to increased phasic NAc DA signaling of earned incentive stimuli, could account for these clinically relevant effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chenfeng Zhang
- Preclinical Laboratory, Department of Adult Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric University Clinic and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Zurich Neuroscience Center, University of Zurich and ETH, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Diana Kúkeľová
- Preclinical Laboratory, Department of Adult Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric University Clinic and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Hannes Sigrist
- Preclinical Laboratory, Department of Adult Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric University Clinic and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Bastian Hengerer
- CNS Diseases Research, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach, Germany
| | - Ramona F Kratzer
- Department of Drug Discovery Sciences, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach, Germany
| | - Philipp Mracek
- Department of Drug Discovery Sciences, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach, Germany
| | - Azar Omrani
- CNS Diseases Research, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach, Germany
| | | | - Christopher R Pryce
- Preclinical Laboratory, Department of Adult Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric University Clinic and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Zurich Neuroscience Center, University of Zurich and ETH, Zurich, Switzerland.
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6
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Potsch L, Rief W. How to improve reward sensitivity - Predictors of long-term effects of a randomized controlled online intervention trial. J Affect Disord 2024; 367:647-657. [PMID: 39243822 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.09.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2024] [Revised: 08/31/2024] [Accepted: 09/02/2024] [Indexed: 09/09/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Reward sensitivity is a central maintaining factor of depression. Current treatments fail at sufficiently and reliably modifying reward processing. Therefore, we employed interventions targeting reward sensitivity and evaluated the long-term efficacy of different online interventions, additionally exploring predictors of changes in reward sensitivity. METHODS This four-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) tested the long-term stability of treatment effects during a four-month follow-up in 127 participants of a two-week online intervention (behavioral activation vs. mindfulness and gratitude vs. combination of both). In addition, we investigated predictors of treatment success defined as improvement in reward sensitivity. Predictors we investigated were depressive expectations, stress and the type of reward implemented in the exercises of the intervention (physical activities and social encounters). RESULTS The improvement concerning reward sensitivity, as well as the reduction of anhedonia and depressive symptoms was stable over a four-month follow-up. We did not find evidence for differences between the active intervention groups. Positive changes in depressive expectations were a significant predictor of long-term improvements in reward sensitivity. LIMITATIONS Only self-report measures were used and the interpretation of the long-term efficacy of the online interventions is limited since the waitlist control condition was not extended to the follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Clinicians should focus on violating depressive expectations to facilitate updating the prediction and anticipation of future rewarding experiences. This could be a vital mechanism of change in reward sensitivity. However, future research still needs to unravel what kind of interventions are most effective in targeting reward insensitivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Potsch
- Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Gutenbergstr. 18, D-35032 Marburg, Germany.
| | - W Rief
- Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Gutenbergstr. 18, D-35032 Marburg, Germany
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7
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Tian H, Wang Z, Meng Y, Geng L, Lian H, Shi Z, Zhuang Z, Cai W, He M. Neural mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment in depression and cognitive benefits of exercise intervention. Behav Brain Res 2024; 476:115218. [PMID: 39182624 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2024] [Revised: 08/22/2024] [Accepted: 08/22/2024] [Indexed: 08/27/2024]
Abstract
Depression is associated with functional brain impairments, although comprehensive studies remain limited. This study reviews neural mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment in depression and identifies associated activation abnormalities in brain regions. The study also explores the underlying neural processes of cognitive benefits of exercise intervention for depression. Executive function impairments, including working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility are associated with frontal cortex and anterior cingulate areas, especially dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Depression is associated with certain neural impairments of reward processing, especially orbitofrontal cortex, prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and other striatal regions. Depressed patients exhibit decreased activity in the hippocampus during memory function. Physical exercise has been found to enhance memory function, executive function, and reward processing in depression patients by increasing functional brain regions and the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as a nutritional factor also plays a key role in exercise intervention. The study documents neurophysiological mechanisms behind exercise intervention's improved functions. In summary, the study provides insights into neural mechanisms underlying cognitive impairments in depression and the effectiveness of exercise as a treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huizi Tian
- Department of Psychology, School of Sports Medicine, Wuhan Sports University, China
| | - Zhifang Wang
- School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, China
| | - Yao Meng
- Department of Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine, Naval Special Medical Center, Naval Medical University, China
| | - Lu Geng
- Department of Psychology, School of Sports Medicine, Wuhan Sports University, China
| | - Hao Lian
- Faculty of Psychology, Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhifei Shi
- Department of Psychology, School of Sports Medicine, Wuhan Sports University, China
| | - Zhidong Zhuang
- Department of Psychology, School of Sports Medicine, Wuhan Sports University, China
| | - Wenpeng Cai
- Faculty of Psychology, Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China.
| | - Mengyang He
- Department of Psychology, School of Sports Medicine, Wuhan Sports University, China.
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8
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Noh K, Oh J, Cho WH, Hwang M, Lee SJ. Astrocyte-derived dominance winning reverses chronic stress-induced depressive behaviors. Mol Brain 2024; 17:59. [PMID: 39192323 DOI: 10.1186/s13041-024-01134-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2024] [Accepted: 08/14/2024] [Indexed: 08/29/2024] Open
Abstract
Individuals with low social status are at heightened risk of major depressive disorder (MDD), and MDD also influences social status. While the interrelationship between MDD and social status is well-defined, the behavioral causality between these two phenotypes remains unexplored. Here, we investigated the behavioral relationships between depressive and dominance behaviors in male mice exposed to chronic restraint stress and the role of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) astrocytes in these behaviors. Chronic restraint stress induced both depressive and submissive behaviors. Chemogenetic mPFC astrocyte activation significantly enhanced dominance in chronic stress-induced submissive mice by increasing the persistence of defensive behavior, although it did not affect depressive behaviors. Notably, repetitive winning experiences following mPFC astrocyte stimulation exerted anti-depressive effects in chronic restraint stress-induced depressive mice. These data indicate that mPFC astrocyte-derived winning experience renders anti-depressive effects, and may offer a new strategy for treating depression caused by low status in social hierarchies by targeting mPFC astrocytes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyungchul Noh
- Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Dental Research Institute, Seoul National University School of Dentistry, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Junyoung Oh
- Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Dental Research Institute, Seoul National University School of Dentistry, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Woo-Hyun Cho
- Institute for Neurological Therapeutics Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA
| | - Minkyu Hwang
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Sung Joong Lee
- Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Dental Research Institute, Seoul National University School of Dentistry, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea.
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9
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Kirchner L, Rief W, Müller L, Buchwald H, Fuhrmann K, Berg M. Depressive symptoms and the processing of unexpected social feedback: Differences in surprise levels, feedback acceptance, and "immunizing" cognition. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0307035. [PMID: 39186743 PMCID: PMC11346924 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2023] [Accepted: 06/26/2024] [Indexed: 08/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Negative social expectations are a key symptom of depression. It has been suggested that individuals with depressive symptoms tend to maintain these expectations by devaluing new experiences that do not fit prior expectations. However, our understanding of the role of such "immunizing" cognition in response to unexpected social feedback in depression, as well as the cognitive mechanisms involved, remains limited. This study investigated the association between depressive symptoms and the cognitive processing of unexpected positive or negative social feedback using a novel, video-based approach featuring naturalistic social stimuli in a subclinical online sample (N = 155). We also examined how surprise levels, feedback acceptance and immunizing cognition relate to other cognitive processes, such as attributional style and rumination, using cross-sectional network analyses. Robust multiple linear regression analyses revealed that depressive symptoms were associated with higher surprise levels (R2adj. = .27), lower feedback acceptance (R2adj. = .19), and higher levels of immunizing cognition (R2adj. = .09) in response to unexpected positive social feedback, but only partially to unexpected negative social feedback. The network analysis suggested that self-efficacy expectations for coping with negative feelings and acceptance of positive social feedback had the strongest expected influence on the different cognitive processes. Our study highlights the challenges that individuals with depressive symptoms face in utilizing positive social feedback to modify negative expectations. For clinicians, our findings suggest the importance of promoting acceptance of positive social feedback, while simultaneously inhibiting immunizing cognition and avoiding the use of overly positive feedback.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lukas Kirchner
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Winfried Rief
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Lilly Müller
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Hannah Buchwald
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Kari Fuhrmann
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Max Berg
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
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10
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Tenekedjieva LT, McCalley DM, Goldstein-Piekarski AN, Williams LM, Padula CB. Transdiagnostic Mood, Anxiety, and Trauma Symptom Factors in Alcohol Use Disorder: Neural Correlates Across 3 Brain Networks. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2024; 9:837-845. [PMID: 38432622 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.01.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2023] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with high rates of trauma, mood, and anxiety disorders. Across these diagnoses, individual symptoms substantially overlap, highlighting the need for a transdiagnostic approach. Furthermore, there is limited research on how transdiagnostic psychopathology impacts the neural correlates of AUD. Thus, we aimed to identify symptom factors spanning diagnoses and examine how they relate to the neurocircuitry of addiction. METHODS Eighty-six veterans with AUD completed self-report measures and reward, incentive salience, and cognitive control functional magnetic resonance imaging tasks. Factor analysis was performed on self-reported trauma, depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms to obtain transdiagnostic symptom compositions. Neural correlates of a priori-defined regions of interest in the 3 networks were assessed. Independent sample t tests were used to compare the same nodes by DSM-5 diagnosis. RESULTS Four symptom factors were identified: Trauma distress, Negative affect, Hyperarousal, and Somatic anxiety. Trauma distress score was associated with increased cognitive control activity during response inhibition (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex). Negative affect was related to lower activation in reward regions (right caudate) but higher activation in cognitive control regions during response inhibition (left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Hyperarousal was related to lower reward activity during monetary reward anticipation (left caudate, right caudate). Somatic anxiety was not significantly associated with brain activation. No difference in neural activity was found by posttraumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS These hypothesis-generating findings offer transdiagnostic symptom factors that are differentially associated with neural function and could guide us toward a brain-based classification of psychiatric dysfunction in AUD. Results warrant further investigation of transdiagnostic approaches in addiction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lea-Tereza Tenekedjieva
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California; Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California.
| | - Daniel M McCalley
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California; Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California
| | - Andrea N Goldstein-Piekarski
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California; Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California
| | - Leanne M Williams
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California; Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California
| | - Claudia B Padula
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California; Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California
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11
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Alderman BL, Perdue HM, Sarwani AH. Exercise for the Prevention and Treatment of Depression. Curr Top Behav Neurosci 2024. [PMID: 39042248 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2024_496] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/24/2024]
Abstract
Depression is among the world's leading causes of disability and accounts for a significant loss of life. Despite large investments in research for antidepressants and psychotherapies, non-response, partial response, and small effects remain significant problems. Exercise and physical activity are two lifestyle behaviors that have been studied for well over half a century for the prevention and treatment of depression. The aim of this chapter is to summarize the current evidence base supporting the efficacy of exercise and physical activity in the prevention and treatment of depression, including evidence supporting exercise as a monotherapy and adjunct to antidepressant medication and psychotherapies. We conclude the chapter by outlining challenges to prescribing exercise for depression and general recommendations for encouraging behavioral adoption for individuals suffering from depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon L Alderman
- Department of Kinesiology and Health, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
| | - Hannah M Perdue
- Department of Kinesiology and Health, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
| | - Amber H Sarwani
- Department of Kinesiology and Health, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
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12
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Xiao J, Adkinson JA, Myers J, Allawala AB, Mathura RK, Pirtle V, Najera R, Provenza NR, Bartoli E, Watrous AJ, Oswalt D, Gadot R, Anand A, Shofty B, Mathew SJ, Goodman WK, Pouratian N, Pitkow X, Bijanki KR, Hayden B, Sheth SA. Beta activity in human anterior cingulate cortex mediates reward biases. Nat Commun 2024; 15:5528. [PMID: 39009561 PMCID: PMC11250824 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49600-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2023] [Accepted: 06/07/2024] [Indexed: 07/17/2024] Open
Abstract
The rewards that we get from our choices and actions can have a major influence on our future behavior. Understanding how reward biasing of behavior is implemented in the brain is important for many reasons, including the fact that diminution in reward biasing is a hallmark of clinical depression. We hypothesized that reward biasing is mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a cortical hub region associated with the integration of reward and executive control and with the etiology of depression. To test this hypothesis, we recorded neural activity during a biased judgment task in patients undergoing intracranial monitoring for either epilepsy or major depressive disorder. We found that beta (12-30 Hz) oscillations in the ACC predicted both associated reward and the size of the choice bias, and also tracked reward receipt, thereby predicting bias on future trials. We found reduced magnitude of bias in depressed patients, in whom the beta-specific effects were correspondingly reduced. Our findings suggest that ACC beta oscillations may orchestrate the learning of reward information to guide adaptive choice, and, more broadly, suggest a potential biomarker for anhedonia and point to future development of interventions to enhance reward impact for therapeutic benefit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiayang Xiao
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Joshua A Adkinson
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - John Myers
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | | | - Raissa K Mathura
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Victoria Pirtle
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Ricardo Najera
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Nicole R Provenza
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Eleonora Bartoli
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Andrew J Watrous
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Denise Oswalt
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Ron Gadot
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Adrish Anand
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Ben Shofty
- Department of Neurosurgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
| | - Sanjay J Mathew
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Wayne K Goodman
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Nader Pouratian
- Department of Neurological Surgery, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
| | - Xaq Pitkow
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA
- Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Kelly R Bijanki
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Benjamin Hayden
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Sameer A Sheth
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
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13
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Kalisch R, Russo SJ, Müller MB. Neurobiology and systems biology of stress resilience. Physiol Rev 2024; 104:1205-1263. [PMID: 38483288 PMCID: PMC11381009 DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00042.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2023] [Revised: 03/06/2024] [Accepted: 03/12/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Stress resilience is the phenomenon that some people maintain their mental health despite exposure to adversity or show only temporary impairments followed by quick recovery. Resilience research attempts to unravel the factors and mechanisms that make resilience possible and to harness its insights for the development of preventative interventions in individuals at risk for acquiring stress-related dysfunctions. Biological resilience research has been lagging behind the psychological and social sciences but has seen a massive surge in recent years. At the same time, progress in this field has been hampered by methodological challenges related to finding suitable operationalizations and study designs, replicating findings, and modeling resilience in animals. We embed a review of behavioral, neuroimaging, neurobiological, and systems biological findings in adults in a critical methods discussion. We find preliminary evidence that hippocampus-based pattern separation and prefrontal-based cognitive control functions protect against the development of pathological fears in the aftermath of singular, event-type stressors [as found in fear-related disorders, including simpler forms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)] by facilitating the perception of safety. Reward system-based pursuit and savoring of positive reinforcers appear to protect against the development of more generalized dysfunctions of the anxious-depressive spectrum resulting from more severe or longer-lasting stressors (as in depression, generalized or comorbid anxiety, or severe PTSD). Links between preserved functioning of these neural systems under stress and neuroplasticity, immunoregulation, gut microbiome composition, and integrity of the gut barrier and the blood-brain barrier are beginning to emerge. On this basis, avenues for biological interventions are pointed out.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raffael Kalisch
- Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (LIR), Mainz, Germany
- Neuroimaging Center (NIC), Focus Program Translational Neuroscience (FTN), Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany
| | - Scott J Russo
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States
- Brain and Body Research Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States
| | - Marianne B Müller
- Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (LIR), Mainz, Germany
- Translational Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany
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14
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Ferstl M, Kühnel A, Klaus J, Lin WM, Kroemer NB. Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation conditions increased invigoration and wanting in depression. Compr Psychiatry 2024; 132:152488. [PMID: 38657358 DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2024.152488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2023] [Revised: 04/02/2024] [Accepted: 04/13/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Major depressive disorder (MDD) is often marked by impaired motivation and reward processing, known as anhedonia. Many patients do not respond to first-line treatments, and improvements in motivation can be slow, creating an urgent need for rapid interventions. Recently, we demonstrated that transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) acutely boosts effort invigoration in healthy participants, but its effects on depression remain unclear. OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of taVNS on effort invigoration and maintenance in a sample that includes patients with MDD, evaluating the generalizability of our findings. METHODS We used a single-blind, randomized crossover design in 30 patients with MDD and 29 matched (age, sex, and BMI) healthy control participants (HCP). RESULTS Consistent with prior findings, taVNS increased effort invigoration for rewards in both groups during Session 1 (p = .040), particularly for less wanted rewards in HCP (pboot < 0.001). However, invigoration remained elevated in all participants, and no acute changes were observed in Session 2 (Δinvigoration = 3.3, p = .12). Crucially, throughout Session 1, we found taVNS-induced increases in effort invigoration (pboot = 0.008) and wanting (pboot = 0.010) in patients with MDD, with gains in wanting maintained across sessions (Δwanting = 0.06, p = .97). CONCLUSIONS Our study replicates the invigorating effects of taVNS in Session 1 and reveals its generalizability to depression. Furthermore, we expand upon previous research by showing taVNS-induced conditioning effects on invigoration and wanting within Session 1 in patients that were largely sustained. While enduring motivational improvements present challenges for crossover designs, they are highly desirable in interventions and warrant further follow-up research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Magdalena Ferstl
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Anne Kühnel
- Section of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Johannes Klaus
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Wy Ming Lin
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Hector Research Institute for Education Science and Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Nils B Kroemer
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Section of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany; German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Germany.
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15
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Augustat N, Endres D, Mueller EM. Uncertainty of treatment efficacy moderates placebo effects on reinforcement learning. Sci Rep 2024; 14:14421. [PMID: 38909105 PMCID: PMC11193823 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-64240-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 06/06/2024] [Indexed: 06/24/2024] Open
Abstract
The placebo-reward hypothesis postulates that positive effects of treatment expectations on health (i.e., placebo effects) and reward processing share common neural underpinnings. Moreover, experiments in humans and animals indicate that reward uncertainty increases striatal dopamine, which is presumably involved in placebo responses and reward learning. Therefore, treatment uncertainty analogously to reward uncertainty may affect updating from rewards after placebo treatment. Here, we address whether different degrees of uncertainty regarding the efficacy of a sham treatment affect reward sensitivity. In an online between-subjects experiment with N = 141 participants, we systematically varied the provided efficacy instructions before participants first received a sham treatment that consisted of listening to binaural beats and then performed a probabilistic reinforcement learning task. We fitted a Q-learning model including two different learning rates for positive (gain) and negative (loss) reward prediction errors and an inverse gain parameter to behavioral decision data in the reinforcement learning task. Our results yielded an inverted-U-relationship between provided treatment efficacy probability and learning rates for gain, such that higher levels of treatment uncertainty, rather than of expected net efficacy, affect presumably dopamine-related reward learning. These findings support the placebo-reward hypothesis and suggest harnessing uncertainty in placebo treatment for recovering reward learning capabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nick Augustat
- Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
| | - Dominik Endres
- Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Erik M Mueller
- Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
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16
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Saccaro LF, Tassone M, Tozzi F, Rutigliano G. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of N-acetyl aspartate in first depressive episode and chronic major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Affect Disord 2024; 355:265-282. [PMID: 38554884 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.03.150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2023] [Revised: 03/20/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/02/2024]
Abstract
N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) is a marker of neuronal integrity and metabolism. Deficiency in neuronal plasticity and hypometabolism are implicated in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) pathophysiology. To test if cerebral NAA concentrations decrease progressively over the MDD course, we conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis of Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1H-MRS) studies comparing NAA concentrations in chronic MDD (n = 1308) and first episode of depression (n = 242) patients to healthy controls (HC, n = 1242). Sixty-two studies were meta-analyzed using a random-effect model for each brain region. NAA concentrations were significantly reduced in chronic MDD compared to HC within the frontal lobe (Hedges' g = -0.330; p = 0.018), the occipital lobe (Hedges' g = -0.677; p = 0.007), thalamus (Hedges' g = -0.673; p = 0.016), and frontal (Hedges' g = -0.471; p = 0.034) and periventricular white matter (Hedges' g = -0.478; p = 0.047). We highlighted a gap of knowledge regarding NAA levels in first episode of depression patients. Sensitivity analyses indicated that antidepressant treatment may reverse NAA alterations in the frontal lobe. We highlighted field strength and correction for voxel grey matter as moderators of NAA levels detection. Future studies should assess NAA alterations in the early stages of the illness and their longitudinal progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luigi F Saccaro
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Campus Biotech, 9 Chemin des Mines, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospital, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
| | - Matteo Tassone
- Department of Pathology, University of Pisa, via Savi 10, 56126 Pisa, Italy
| | - Francesca Tozzi
- Bio@SNS laboratory, Scuola Normale Superiore, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Grazia Rutigliano
- Department of Pathology, University of Pisa, via Savi 10, 56126 Pisa, Italy; Institute of Clinical Sciences, Imperial College London, MRI Steiner Unit, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, Du Cane Road, W12 0NN London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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17
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Wilkinson MP, Robinson ES, Mellor JR. Analysis of hippocampal synaptic function in a rodent model of early life stress. Wellcome Open Res 2024; 9:300. [PMID: 39221440 PMCID: PMC11362746 DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.22276.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 09/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Early life stress (ELS) is an important risk factor in the aetiology of depression. Developmental glucocorticoid exposure impacts multiple brain regions with the hippocampus being particularly vulnerable. Hippocampal mediated behaviours are dependent upon the ability of neurones to undergo long-term potentiation (LTP), an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) mediated process. In this study we investigated the effect of ELS upon hippocampal NMDAR function. Methods Hooded Long-Evans rat pups (n=82) were either undisturbed or maternally separated for 180 minutes per day (MS180) between post-natal day (PND) 1 and PND14. Model validation consisted of sucrose preference (n=18) and novelty supressed feeding (NSFT, n=34) tests alongside assessment of corticosterone (CORT) and paraventricular nucleus (PVN) cFos reactivity to stress and hippocampal neurogenesis (all n=18). AMPA/NMDA ratios (n=19), miniEPSC currents (n=19) and LTP (n=15) were assessed in whole-cell patch clamp experiments in CA1 pyramidal neurones. Results MS180 animals showed increased feeding latency in the NSFT alongside increased overall CORT in the restraint stress experiment and increased PVN cFos expression in males but no changes in neurogenesis or sucrose preference. MS180 was associated with a lower AMPA/NMDA ratio with no change in miniEPSC amplitude or area. There was no difference in short- or long-term potentiation between MS180 and control animals nor were there any changes during the induction protocol. Conclusions The MS180 model showed a behavioural phenotype consistent with previous work. MS180 animals showed increased NMDAR function with preliminary evidence suggesting that this was not concurrent with an increase in LTP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew P. Wilkinson
- School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, England, BS8 1TD, UK
- Hello Bio Ltd, Bristol, BS11 0QL, UK
| | - Emma S.J. Robinson
- School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, England, BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Jack R. Mellor
- School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, England, BS8 1TD, UK
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18
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Adam AS, LaMalfa KS, Razavi Y, Kohut SJ, Kangas BD. A Multimodal Preclinical Assessment of MDMA in Female and Male Rats: Prohedonic, Cognition Disruptive, and Prosocial Effects. PSYCHEDELIC MEDICINE (NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y.) 2024; 2:96-108. [PMID: 39149579 PMCID: PMC11324000 DOI: 10.1089/psymed.2023.0049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/17/2024]
Abstract
Background Frontline antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) leave many patients with unmet treatment needs. Moreover, even when SSRIs reduce depressive symptoms, anhedonia, the loss of pleasure to previously rewarding activities, often remains unabated. This state of affairs is disheartening and calls for the development of medications to more directly treat anhedonia. The atypical psychedelic 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) might have promise as a prohedonic medication given its efficacious applications for treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder and comorbid depression. However, in addition to its prosocial effects as an entactogen, MDMA is also associated with neurotoxic cognitive deficits. The present studies were designed to examine the relative potency of MDMA in female and male rats across three distinct behavioral domains to assist in defining a preclinical profile of MDMA as a candidate prohedonic therapeutic. Methods First, signal detection metrics of reward responsivity were examined using the touchscreen probabilistic reward task (PRT), a reverse-translated assay used to objectively quantify anhedonic phenotypes in humans. Second, to probe potential cognitive deficits, touchscreen-based assays of psychomotor vigilance and delayed matching-to-position were used to examine attentional processes and short-term spatial memory, respectively. Finally, MDMA's entactogenic effects were studied via pairwise assessments of social interaction facilitated by machine-learning analyses. Results Findings show (1) dose-dependent increases in reward responsivity as quantified by the PRT, (2) dose-dependent deficits in attention and short-term memory, and (3) dose-dependent increases in aspects of prosocial interaction in male but not female subjects. Neither the desirable (prohedonic) nor undesirable (cognition disruptive) effects of MDMA persisted beyond 24 h. Conclusions The present results characterize MDMA as a promising prohedonic treatment, notwithstanding some liability for short-lived cognitive impairment following acute administration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abshir S. Adam
- Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | - Yasaman Razavi
- Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Stephen J. Kohut
- Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Brian D. Kangas
- Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA
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19
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Galin S, Keren H. The Predictive Potential of Heart Rate Variability for Depression. Neuroscience 2024; 546:88-103. [PMID: 38513761 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.03.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2023] [Revised: 02/29/2024] [Accepted: 03/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/23/2024]
Abstract
Heart rate variability (HRV),a measure of the fluctuations in the intervals between consecutive heartbeats, is an indicator of changes in the autonomic nervous system. A chronic reduction in HRV has been repeatedly linked to clinical depression. However, the chronological and mechanistic aspects of this relationship, between the neural, physiological, and psychopathological levels, remain unclear. In this review we present evidence by which changes in HRV might precede the onset of depression. We describe several pathways that can facilitate this relationship. First, we examine a theoretical model of the impact of autonomic imbalance on HRV and its role in contributing to mood dysregulation and depression. We then highlight brain regions that are regulating both HRV and emotion, suggesting these neural regions, and the Insula in particular, as potential mediators of this relationship. We also present additional possible mediating mechanisms involving the immune system and inflammation processes. Lastly, we support this model by showing evidence that modification of HRV with biofeedback leads to an improvement in some symptoms of depression. The possibility that changes in HRV precede the onset of depression is critical to put to the test, not only because it could provide insights into the mechanisms of the illness but also because it may offer a predictive anddiagnosticphysiological marker for depression. Importantly, it could also help to develop new effective clinical interventions for treating depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shir Galin
- Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar Ilan University, Safed, Israel; Gonda Interdisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Hanna Keren
- Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar Ilan University, Safed, Israel; Gonda Interdisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
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20
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Lütkenherm IK, Locke SM, Robinson OJ. Reward Sensitivity and Noise Contribute to Negative Affective Bias: A Learning Signal Detection Theory Approach in Decision-Making. COMPUTATIONAL PSYCHIATRY (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2024; 8:70-84. [PMID: 38774427 PMCID: PMC11104415 DOI: 10.5334/cpsy.102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 05/24/2024]
Abstract
In patients with mood disorders, negative affective biases - systematically prioritising and interpreting information negatively - are common. A translational cognitive task testing this bias has shown that depressed patients have a reduced preference for a high reward under ambiguous decision-making conditions. The precise mechanisms underscoring this bias are, however, not yet understood. We therefore developed a set of measures to probe the underlying source of the behavioural bias by testing its relationship to a participant's reward sensitivity, value sensitivity and reward learning rate. One-hundred-forty-eight participants completed three online behavioural tasks: the original ambiguous-cue decision-making task probing negative affective bias, a probabilistic reward learning task probing reward sensitivity and reward learning rate, and a gambling task probing value sensitivity. We modelled the learning task through a dynamic signal detection theory model and the gambling task through an expectation-maximisation prospect theory model. Reward sensitivity from the probabilistic reward task (β = 0.131, p = 0.024) and setting noise from the probabilistic reward task (β = -0.187, p = 0.028) both predicted the affective bias score in a logistic regression. Increased negative affective bias, at least on this specific task, may therefore be driven in part by a combination of reduced sensitivity to rewards and more variable responses.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Shannon M. Locke
- Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs, Département d’Études Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, PSL University, CNRS, Paris, FR
| | - Oliver J. Robinson
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK
- Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, UK
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21
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Lett TA, Vaidya N, Jia T, Polemiti E, Banaschewski T, Bokde ALW, Flor H, Grigis A, Garavan H, Gowland P, Heinz A, Brüh R, Martinot JL, Martinot MLP, Artiges E, Nees F, Orfanos DP, Lemaitre H, Paus T, Poustka L, Stringaris A, Waller L, Zhang Z, Robinson L, Winterer J, Zhang Y, King S, Smolka MN, Whelan R, Schmidt U, Sinclair J, Walter H, Feng J, Robbins TW, Desrivières S, Marquand A, Schumann G. A framework for a brain-derived nosology of psychiatric disorders. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.05.07.24306980. [PMID: 38766134 PMCID: PMC11100856 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.07.24306980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2024]
Abstract
Current psychiatric diagnoses are not defined by neurobiological measures which hinders the development of therapies targeting mechanisms underlying mental illness 1,2 . Research confined to diagnostic boundaries yields heterogeneous biological results, whereas transdiagnostic studies often investigate individual symptoms in isolation. There is currently no paradigm available to comprehensively investigate the relationship between different clinical symptoms, individual disorders, and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Here, we propose a framework that groups clinical symptoms derived from ICD-10/DSM-V according to shared brain mechanisms defined by brain structure, function, and connectivity. The reassembly of existing ICD-10/DSM-5 symptoms reveal six cross-diagnostic psychopathology scores related to mania symptoms, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, stress symptoms, eating pathology, and fear symptoms. They were consistently associated with multimodal neuroimaging components in the training sample of young adults aged 23, the independent test sample aged 23, participants aged 14 and 19 years, and in psychiatric patients. The identification of symptom groups of mental illness robustly defined by precisely characterized brain mechanisms enables the development of a psychiatric nosology based upon quantifiable neurobiological measures. As the identified symptom groups align well with existing diagnostic categories, our framework is directly applicable to clinical research and patient care.
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22
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Keskin-Gokcelli D, Kizilates-Evin G, Eroglu-Koc S, Oguz K, Eraslan C, Kitis O, Gonul AS. The effect of emotional faces on reward-related probability learning in depressed patients. J Affect Disord 2024; 351:184-193. [PMID: 38286231 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2023] [Revised: 12/30/2023] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 01/31/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Existing research indicates that individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) exhibit a bias toward salient negative stimuli. However, the impact of such biased stimuli on concurrent cognitive and affective processes in individuals with depression remains inadequately understood. This study aimed to investigate the effects of salient environmental stimuli, specifically emotional faces, on reward-associated processes in MDD. METHODS Thirty-three patients with recurrent MDD and thirty-two healthy controls (HC) matched for age, sex, and education were included in the study. We used a reward-related associative learning (RRAL) task primed with emotional (happy, sad, neutral) faces to investigate the effect of salient stimuli on reward-related learning and decision-making in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were instructed to ignore emotional faces during the task. The fMRI data were analyzed using a full-factorial general linear model (GLM) in Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM12). RESULTS In depressed patients, cues primed with sad faces were associated with reduced amygdala activation. However, both HC and MDD group exhibited reduced ventral striatal activity while learning reward-related cues and receiving rewards. LIMITATIONS The patients'medication usage was not standardized. CONCLUSIONS This study underscores the functional alteration of the amygdala in response to cognitive tasks presented with negative emotionally salient stimuli in the environment of MDD patients. The observed alterations in amygdala activity suggest potential interconnected effects with other regions of the prefrontal cortex. Understanding the intricate neural connections and their disruptions in depression is crucial for unraveling the complex pathophysiology of the disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Duygu Keskin-Gokcelli
- SoCAT Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University Hospital, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany
| | - Gozde Kizilates-Evin
- SoCAT Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; Hulusi Behcet Life Sciences Research Laboratory, Neuroimaging Unit, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Seda Eroglu-Koc
- SoCAT Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; Department of Psychology, Faculty of Letters, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Kaya Oguz
- SoCAT Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; Department of Computer Engineering, Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Cenk Eraslan
- SoCAT Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Omer Kitis
- SoCAT Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Ali Saffet Gonul
- SoCAT Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Mercer School of Medicine, Mercer University, Macon, GA, USA.
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Lin L, Liu Y, Qiu S, Yang Y, Yang Y, Tian M, Wang S, Zhang J, Bai X, Xu Z. Orbital frontal cortex functional connectivity during gain anticipation linking the rumination and non-suicidal self-injury in late adolescence. J Affect Disord 2024; 350:673-680. [PMID: 38228278 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2023] [Revised: 12/22/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 01/18/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is prevalent and especially among the adolescence population. It has been argued that abnormal brain activations in reward processing could be regarded as objective biomarkers in NSSI, but the evidence is mixed. This study aims to explore the reward processing mechanism of NSSI from the perspective of functional brain circuitry and investigate the role of a cognitive factor (rumination). METHOD Seventy-one 17-21 years old participants performed a monetary incentive delay (MID) task during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis was used to test the inner-group differences of brain functional connectivity. In addition, a mediation model was established with the mediation effect of rumination on the relationship between functional brain circuitry and NSSI. RESULTS PPI analysis suggested that functional connectivity of the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) (with precuneus, SMA) was significantly enhanced in NSSI in the gain > loss contrast, but not in the loss > gain contrast. Mediation analysis revealed that rumination mediated the relationship between NSSI and the OFC- precuneus functional connectivity in the gain > loss contrast. CONCLUSION Our research revealed that the abnormal OFC functional connectivity in gain (not loss) anticipation can be served as the sensitive biomarkers of NSSI. And there was a chain path for NSSI, that was from functional brain circuitry to negative cognition and then to problem behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lin Lin
- Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Center of Cooperative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of National Mental Health under Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300387, China; Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Yu Liu
- Intelligent Laboratory of Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Crisis Intervention of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, Zhejiang, China; Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, Zhejiang, China
| | - Shaojie Qiu
- Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Yanan Yang
- Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Center of Cooperative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of National Mental Health under Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300387, China; Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Yang Yang
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment Toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Mingyangjia Tian
- Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Center of Cooperative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of National Mental Health under Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300387, China; Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Song Wang
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China; Research Unit of Psychoradiology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China; Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China
| | - Jie Zhang
- Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081, China; Buffalo State Department of Sociology, State University of New York, Buffalo 10001, USA
| | - Xuejun Bai
- Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Center of Cooperative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of National Mental Health under Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300387, China; Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Zhansheng Xu
- Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Center of Cooperative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of National Mental Health under Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300387, China; Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China.
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Zhang B, Rolls ET, Wang X, Xie C, Cheng W, Feng J. Roles of the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex in major depression and its treatment. Mol Psychiatry 2024; 29:914-928. [PMID: 38212376 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02380-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2023] [Revised: 12/06/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2024]
Abstract
We describe evidence for dissociable roles of the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in major depressive disorder (MDD) from structure, functional activation, functional connectivity, metabolism, and neurochemical systems. The reward-related medial orbitofrontal cortex has lower connectivity and less reward sensitivity in MDD associated with anhedonia symptoms; and the non-reward related lateral OFC has higher functional connectivity and more sensitivity to non-reward/aversive stimuli in MDD associated with negative bias symptoms. Importantly, we propose that conventional antidepressants act to normalize the hyperactive lateral (but not medial) OFC to reduce negative bias in MDD; while other treatments are needed to operate on the medial OFC to reduce anhedonia, with emerging evidence suggesting that ketamine may act in this way. The orbitofrontal cortex is the key cortical region in emotion and reward, and the current review presents much new evidence about the different ways that the medial and lateral OFC are involved in MDD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bei Zhang
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China
- Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, PR China
| | - Edmund T Rolls
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
- Oxford Centre for Computational Neuroscience, Oxford, UK.
- Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
| | - Xiang Wang
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, PR China
- Medical Psychological Institute, Central South University, Changsha, PR China
- China National Clinical Research Center on Mental Disorders (Xiangya), Changsha, PR China
| | - Chao Xie
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China
- Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, PR China
| | - Wei Cheng
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
- Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, PR China.
- MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
- Department of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
| | - Jianfeng Feng
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
- Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, PR China.
- Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
- MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
- Zhangjiang Fudan International Innovation Center, Shanghai, PR China.
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Bernstein EE, Wolfe EC, Huguenel BM, Wilhelm S. Lessons and Untapped Potential of Smartphone-Based Physical Activity Interventions for Mental Health: Narrative Review. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2024; 12:e45860. [PMID: 38488834 PMCID: PMC10981024 DOI: 10.2196/45860] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2023] [Revised: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 11/30/2023] [Indexed: 03/19/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Physical activity has well-known and broad health benefits, including antidepressive and anxiolytic effects. However, only approximately half of Americans meet even the minimum exercise recommendations. Individuals with anxiety, depression, or related conditions are even less likely to do so. With the advent of mobile sensors and phones, experts have quickly noted the utility of technology for the enhanced measurement of and intervention for physical activity. In addition to being more accessible than in-person approaches, technology-driven interventions may uniquely engage key mechanisms of behavior change such as self-awareness. OBJECTIVE This study aims to provide a narrative overview and specific recommendations for future research on smartphone-based physical activity interventions for psychological disorders or concerns. METHODS In this paper, we summarized early efforts to adapt and test smartphone-based or smartphone-supported physical activity interventions for mental health. The included articles described or reported smartphone-delivered or smartphone-supported interventions intended to increase physical activity or reduce sedentary behavior and included an emotional disorder, concern, or symptom as an outcome measure. We attempted to extract details regarding the intervention designs, trial designs, study populations, outcome measures, and inclusion of adaptations specifically for mental health. In taking a narrative lens, we drew attention to the type of work that has been done and used these exemplars to discuss key directions to build on. RESULTS To date, most studies have examined mental health outcomes as secondary or exploratory variables largely in the context of managing medical concerns (eg, cancer and diabetes). Few trials have recruited psychiatric populations or explicitly aimed to target psychiatric concerns. Consequently, although there are encouraging signals that smartphone-based physical activity interventions could be feasible, acceptable, and efficacious for individuals with mental illnesses, this remains an underexplored area. CONCLUSIONS Promising avenues for tailoring validated smartphone-based interventions include adding psychoeducation (eg, the relationship between depression, physical activity, and inactivity), offering psychosocial treatment in parallel (eg, cognitive restructuring), and adding personalized coaching. To conclude, we offer specific recommendations for future research, treatment development, and implementation in this area, which remains open and promising for flexible, highly scalable support.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily E Bernstein
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Emma C Wolfe
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
| | - Brynn M Huguenel
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Sabine Wilhelm
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
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Dickey L, Dao A, Pegg S, Kujawa A. Neural markers of emotion regulation difficulties in adolescent depression and risk for depression. JOURNAL OF MOOD AND ANXIETY DISORDERS 2024; 5:100051. [PMID: 38500633 PMCID: PMC10947814 DOI: 10.1016/j.xjmad.2024.100051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/20/2024]
Abstract
Depressed individuals tend to use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies more frequently than non-depressed individuals while using adaptive strategies (e.g., reappraisal) less frequently. Objective neural markers of emotion regulation ability could aid in identifying youth at greatest risk for depression and functional impairment more broadly. We used electroencephalography to examine emotion regulation in adolescents (aged 14-17; N = 201) with current depression (n = 94) and without any history of depression (n = 107) at high (n = 54) and low (n = 53) risk for depression based on a maternal history of depression. Results revealed group differences in event-related potential markers of emotion regulation using multiple scoring approaches. Never-depressed adolescents had significant reductions in mean-activity and principal component analysis-identified late positive potential responses to dysphoric stimuli under reappraisal instructions compared to passive viewing. There was no significant difference in neural responses between conditions among depressed adolescents. The magnitude of the reappraisal effects appeared slightly stronger for low-risk adolescents relative to high-risk. Exploratory analyses further demonstrated that the association between neural markers of emotion regulation and overall functioning was moderated by age, such that impaired emotion regulation abilities predicted poorer functioning among older adolescents. Findings support the sensitivity of the late positive potential to emotion regulation impairments in depression and psychopathology more broadly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsay Dickey
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, USA
| | - Anh Dao
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, USA
| | - Samantha Pegg
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, USA
| | - Autumn Kujawa
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, USA
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27
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Chan SY, Low XZ, Ngoh ZM, Ong ZY, Kee MZL, Huang P, Kumar S, Rifkin-Graboi A, Chong YS, Chen H, Tan KH, Chan JKY, Fortier MV, Gluckman PD, Zhou JH, Meaney MJ, Tan AP. Neonatal Nucleus Accumbens Microstructure Modulates Individual Susceptibility to Preconception Maternal Stress in Relation to Externalizing Behaviors. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2024:S0890-8567(24)00071-6. [PMID: 38423282 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2023.12.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2023] [Revised: 11/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Maternal stress influences in utero brain development and is a modifiable risk factor for offspring psychopathologies. Reward circuitry dysfunction underlies various internalizing and externalizing psychopathologies. This study examined (1) the association between maternal stress and microstructural characteristics of the neonatal nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a major node of the reward circuitry, and (2) whether neonatal NAcc microstructure modulates individual susceptibility to maternal stress in relation to childhood behavioral problems. METHOD K-means longitudinal cluster analysis was performed to determine trajectories of maternal stress measures (Perceived Stress Scale [PSS], hair cortisol) from preconception to the third trimester. Neonatal NAcc microstructural measures (orientation density index [ODI] and intracellular volume fraction [ICVF]) were compared across trajectories. We then examined the interaction between maternal stress and neonatal NAcc microstructure on child internalizing and externalizing behaviors, assessed between ages 3 and 4 years. RESULTS Two trajectories of maternal stress magnitude ("low"/"high") were identified for both PSS (n = 287) and hair cortisol (n = 336). Right neonatal NAcc ODI (rNAcc-ODI) was significantly lower in "low" relative to "high" PSS trajectories (n = 77, p = .04). PSS at preconception had the strongest association with rNAcc-ODI (r = 0.293, p = .029). No differences in NAcc microstructure were found between hair cortisol trajectories. A significant interaction between preconception PSS and rNAcc-ODI on externalizing behavior was observed (n = 47, p = .047). CONCLUSION Our study showed that the preconception period contributes to in utero NAcc development, and that NAcc microstructure modulates individual susceptibility to preconception maternal stress in relation to externalizing problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shi Yu Chan
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore, Singapore
| | - Xi Zhen Low
- National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Zhen Ming Ngoh
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore, Singapore
| | - Zi Yan Ong
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore, Singapore
| | - Michelle Z L Kee
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore, Singapore
| | - Pei Huang
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore, Singapore
| | | | - Anne Rifkin-Graboi
- National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Yap-Seng Chong
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore, Singapore; National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore; National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Helen Chen
- KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Duke-National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Kok Hian Tan
- KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Duke-National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Jerry K Y Chan
- KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Duke-National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Marielle V Fortier
- KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Duke-National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Peter D Gluckman
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore, Singapore
| | | | - Michael J Meaney
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore, Singapore; National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore; Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Ai Peng Tan
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A∗STAR), Singapore, Singapore; National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore; National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
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28
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Duken SB, Keessen L, Hoijtink H, Kindt M, van Ast VA. Bayesian evaluation of diverging theories of episodic and affective memory distortions in dysphoria. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1320. [PMID: 38351107 PMCID: PMC10864297 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45203-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2020] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024] Open
Abstract
People suffering from dysphoria retrieve autobiographical memories distorted in content and affect, which may contribute to the aetiology and maintenance of depression. However, key memory difficulties in dysphoria remain elusive because theories disagree how memories of different valence are altered. Here, we assessed the psychophysiological expression of affect and retrieved episodic detail while participants with dysphoria (but without a diagnosed mental illness) and participants without dysphoria relived positive, negative, and neutral memories. We show that participants with dysphoria retrieve positive memories with diminished episodic detail and negative memories with enhanced detail, compared to participants without dysphoria. This is in line with negativity bias but not overgeneral memory bias theories. According to confirmatory analyses, participants with dysphoria also express diminished positive affect and enhanced negative affect when retrieving happy memories, but exploratory analyses suggest that this increase in negative affect may not be robust. Further confirmatory analyses showed that affective responses to memories are not related to episodic detail and already present during the experience of new emotional events. Our results indicate that affective memory distortions may not emerge from mnemonic processes but from general distortions in positive affect, which challenges assumptions of memory theories and therapeutics. Protocol registration: The Stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on the 18rd of March 2021. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14605374.v1 .
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Affiliation(s)
- Sascha B Duken
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Liza Keessen
- Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Herbert Hoijtink
- Department of Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Merel Kindt
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Vanessa A van Ast
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
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Halahakoon DC, Kaltenboeck A, Martens M, Geddes JG, Harmer CJ, Cowen P, Browning M. Pramipexole Enhances Reward Learning by Preserving Value Estimates. Biol Psychiatry 2024; 95:286-296. [PMID: 37330165 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.05.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2023] [Revised: 05/02/2023] [Accepted: 05/29/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Dopamine D2-like agonists show promise as treatments for depression. They are thought to act by enhancing reward learning; however, the mechanisms by which they achieve this are not clear. Reinforcement learning accounts describe 3 distinct candidate mechanisms: increased reward sensitivity, increased inverse decision-temperature, and decreased value decay. As these mechanisms produce equivalent effects on behavior, arbitrating between them requires measurement of how expectations and prediction errors are altered. We characterized the effects of 2 weeks of the D2-like agonist pramipexole on reward learning and used functional magnetic resonance imaging measures of expectation and prediction error to assess which of these 3 mechanistic processes were responsible for the behavioral effects. METHODS Forty healthy volunteers (50% female) were randomized to 2 weeks of pramipexole (titrated to 1 mg/day) or placebo in a double-blind, between-subject design. Participants completed a probabilistic instrumental learning task before and after the pharmacological intervention, with functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected at the second visit. Asymptotic choice accuracy and a reinforcement learning model were used to assess reward learning. RESULTS Pramipexole increased choice accuracy in the reward condition with no effect on losses. Participants who received pramipexole had increased blood oxygen level-dependent response in the orbital frontal cortex during the expectation of win trials but decreased blood oxygen level-dependent response to reward prediction errors in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This pattern of results indicates that pramipexole enhances choice accuracy by reducing the decay of estimated values during reward learning. CONCLUSIONS The D2-like receptor agonist pramipexole enhances reward learning by preserving learned values. This is a plausible mechanism for pramipexole's antidepressant effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Don Chamith Halahakoon
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Oxford Health National Health Service Foundation Trust, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Alexander Kaltenboeck
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Clinical Division of Social Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Marieke Martens
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - John G Geddes
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Oxford Health National Health Service Foundation Trust, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Catherine J Harmer
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Oxford Health National Health Service Foundation Trust, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Philip Cowen
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Oxford Health National Health Service Foundation Trust, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Michael Browning
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Oxford Health National Health Service Foundation Trust, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom.
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Liuzzi MT, Harb F, Petranu K, Huggins AA, Webb EK, Fitzgerald JM, Krukowski JL, Miskovich TA, deRoon-Cassini TA, Larson CL. The Dichotomy of Threat and Deprivation as Subtypes of Childhood Maltreatment: Differential Functional Connectivity Patterns of Threat and Reward Circuits in an Adult Trauma Sample. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2024; 9:227-234. [PMID: 37871776 PMCID: PMC10922968 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2023.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Revised: 10/04/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 10/25/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced activation of the nucleus accumbens, a central region in the reward network, and overactivity in the amygdala, a key region in threat processing. However, the long-lasting impact of these associations in the context of later-life stress is not well understood. The current study explored the association between childhood threat and deprivation and functional connectivity of threat and reward regions in an adult trauma sample. METHODS Trauma survivors (N = 169; mean age [SD] = 32.2 [10.3] years; female = 55.6%) were recruited from a level I trauma center. Two weeks after injury, participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (measuring experiences of threat and deprivation) and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Seed-to-voxel analyses evaluated the effect of childhood threat and deprivation on amygdala and nucleus accumbens resting-state connectivity. RESULTS Higher levels of threat were associated with increased connectivity between the right nucleus accumbens with temporal fusiform gyrus/parahippocampal gyrus and the left amygdala and the precuneus (false discovery rate-corrected p < .05). After controlling for posttraumatic symptoms 2 weeks posttrauma and lifetime trauma exposure, only the nucleus accumbens findings survived. There were no significant relationships between experiences of childhood deprivation and amygdala or nucleus accumbens connectivity. CONCLUSIONS Experiences of threat are associated with increased nucleus accumbens and amygdala connectivity, which may reflect a preparedness to detect salient and visual stimuli. This may also reflect a propensity toward dysregulated reward processing. Overall, these results suggest that childhood threat may be contributing to aberrant neural baseline reward and threat sensitivity later in life in an adult trauma sample.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael T Liuzzi
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
| | - Farah Harb
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
| | - Kevin Petranu
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
| | - Ashley A Huggins
- Brain Imaging & Analysis Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
| | - E Kate Webb
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Division of Depression and Anxiety, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts
| | | | | | | | - Terri A deRoon-Cassini
- Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, Department of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
| | - Christine L Larson
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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Potsch L, Rief W. Effectiveness of behavioral activation and mindfulness in increasing reward sensitivity and reducing depressive symptoms - A randomized controlled trial. Behav Res Ther 2024; 173:104455. [PMID: 38128402 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2023.104455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2023] [Revised: 11/08/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023]
Abstract
Reward insensitivity is a potential key mechanism regarding the maintenance of depression. However, there is a lack of research examining and comparing the effectiveness of different psychological interventions in modifying reward insensitivity. This four-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) investigated a two-week online intervention. After screening for eligibility, a total of 336 participants were randomized, and 224 participated per-protocol. Participants were assigned to either a) behavioral activation, b) mindfulness and gratitude, c) a combination of both, or d) a waitlist control condition. They received videos and implemented daily exercises. Reward sensitivity and depressive symptoms served as primary outcomes. Behavioral activation and mindfulness significantly improved depressive symptoms and reward sensitivity. However, the effects of behavioral activation were not superior. The combination treatment versus the waiting group was insignificant regarding reward insensitivity. Explorative analyses revealed that all intervention groups reduced anhedonia substantially. Our findings imply that brief online interventions with behavioral activation and mindfulness-based approaches can impact reward insensitivity, while effects for a combination were less clear. Nonetheless, our results do not allow us to infer the differential effectiveness of the interventions. There is a clear need for treatments better targeting maintaining factors of depression, such as reward insensitivity. Clinical trial registration number: NCT05402150.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Potsch
- Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Gutenbergstr. 18, D-35032, Marburg, Germany.
| | - W Rief
- Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Gutenbergstr. 18, D-35032, Marburg, Germany
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Duttweiler H, Granros M, Sheena M, Burkhouse KL. Neural reward responsiveness and daily positive affect functioning in adolescent girls. Int J Psychophysiol 2024; 195:112278. [PMID: 38065410 PMCID: PMC10863647 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2023.112278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2023] [Revised: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/31/2023]
Abstract
Deficits in reward processing have been implicated in the development of many forms of psychopathology, especially major depressive disorder (MDD). One facet of reward processing, known as reward responsivity, has been associated with the development and maintenance of depression across development. The reward positivity (RewP) is an event-related potential derived from electroencephalogram (EEG), which is thought to reflect reward responsivity. An attenuated RewP has been observed in both currently depressed individuals and youth at risk for depression, suggesting it may represent a biomarker of depression. Despite this, little is known about how the RewP translates to behavior and affect in the real world. In the current study, we examined how the RewP relates to real world emotional functioning, measured using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Thirty-eight female adolescents (ages 11-16, Mage = 13.9 years) participated in the study; approximately half of the sample were considered high risk due to maternal lifetime history of MDD. Adolescents completed a monetary reward task while EEG was recorded, followed by a 10-day period of EMA assessing daily affect and emotion regulation strategy use following positive events. Results revealed that the RewP was positively associated with subjective reports of positive, but not negative, daily affect. Results also revealed that the RewP was positively associated with focusing on positive feelings following a positive event (e.g., savoring). Findings from this preliminary study highlight how neural responses to reward in the lab relate to daily life emotional functioning, supporting the RewP as an ecologically valid marker of positive affect functioning among youth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Duttweiler
- The Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, United States of America
| | - Maria Granros
- University of Illinois Chicago, Department of Psychiatry, United States of America
| | - Michelle Sheena
- University of Illinois Chicago, Department of Psychiatry, United States of America
| | - Katie L Burkhouse
- The Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, United States of America; The Ohio State University, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, United States of America.
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Olino TM, Mattoni M. Neural activation and connectivity in offspring of depressed mothers during monetary and social reward tasks. Biol Psychol 2024; 185:108724. [PMID: 37981097 PMCID: PMC10842196 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108724] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2022] [Revised: 11/12/2023] [Accepted: 11/13/2023] [Indexed: 11/21/2023]
Abstract
Multiple previous studies show associations between history of and familial risk for depression and reward function. These previous studies have predominantly focused on neural activation during monetary tasks. Fewer studies of have examined functional connectivity and social reward tasks, particularly in offspring of mothers with depression. This study examined brain function in older children (aged 9-14 years) through both regional activation and functional connectivity during monetary (n = 103) and social reward (n = 115) tasks. Overall, our study failed to find significant differences between offspring of mothers with and without depression on monetary (65 offspring of mothers without and 38 offspring of mother with depression) and social reward (73 offspring of mothers without and 42 offspring of mother with depression) tasks on task activation and functional connectivity. We discuss possibilities for developmental timing of finding differences between offspring of mothers with and without depression on monetary and social reward tasks.
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Kamenish K, Robinson ESJ. Neuropsychological Effects of Antidepressants: Translational Studies. Curr Top Behav Neurosci 2024; 66:101-130. [PMID: 37955824 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2023_446] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2023]
Abstract
Pharmacological treatments that improve mood were first identified serendipitously, but more than half a century later, how these drugs induce their antidepressant effects remains largely unknown. With the help of animal models, a detailed understanding of their pharmacological targets and acute and chronic effects on brain chemistry and neuronal function has been achieved, but it remains to be elucidated how these effects translate to clinical efficacy. Whilst the field has been dominated by the monoamine and neurotrophic hypotheses, the idea that the maladaptive cognitive process plays a critical role in the development and perpetuation of mood disorders has been discussed since the 1950s. Recently, studies using objective methods to quantify changes in emotional processing found acute effects with conventional antidepressants in both healthy volunteers and patients. These positive effects on emotional processing and cognition occur without a change in the subjective ratings of mood. Building from these studies, behavioural methods for animals that quantify similar cognitive affective processes have been developed. Integrating these behavioural approaches with pharmacology and targeted brain manipulations, a picture is beginning to emerge of the underlying mechanisms that may link the pharmacology of antidepressants, these neuropsychological constructs and clinical efficacy. In this chapter, we discuss findings from animal studies, experimental medicine and patients investigating the neuropsychological effects of antidepressant drugs. We discuss the possible neural circuits that contribute to these effects and discuss whether a neuropsychological model of antidepressant effects could explain the temporal differences in clinical benefits observed with conventional delayed-onset antidepressants versus rapid-acting antidepressants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katie Kamenish
- School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol, UK
| | - Emma S J Robinson
- School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol, UK.
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Pouyan N, Younesi Sisi F, Kargar A, Scheidegger M, McIntyre RS, Morrow JD. The effects of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) on the Positive Valence Systems: A Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)-Informed Systematic Review. CNS Drugs 2023; 37:1027-1063. [PMID: 37999867 PMCID: PMC10703966 DOI: 10.1007/s40263-023-01044-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 11/25/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The renewed interest in psychedelic research provides growing evidence of potentially unique effects on various aspects of reward processing systems. Using the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework, as proposed by the National Institute of Mental Health, we aim to synthesize the existing literature concerning the impact of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on the RDoC's Positive Valence Systems (PVS) domain, and to identify potential avenues for further research. METHODS Two LSD-related terms (lysergic acid diethylamide and LSD) and 13 PVS-related terms (reward, happiness, bliss, motivation, reinforcement learning, operant, conditioning, satisfaction, decision making, habit, valence, affect, mood) were used to search electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, PsychINFO, and Web of Science for relevant articles. A manual search of the reference list resulted in nine additional articles. After screening, articles and data were evaluated and included based on their relevance to the objective of investigating the effects of LSD on the PVS. Articles and data were excluded if they did not provide information about the PVS, were observational in nature, lacked comparators or reference groups, or were duplicates. A risk of bias assessment was performed using the National Toxicology Program's Office of Health Assessment and Translation (NTP OHAT) risk of bias (RoB) tool. Data from the included articles were collected and structured based on the RDoC bio-behavioral matrix, specifically focusing on the PVS domain and its three constituent constructs: reward responsiveness, reward learning, and reward valuation. RESULTS We reviewed 28 clinical studies with 477 participants. Lysergic acid diethylamide, assessed at self-report (23 studies), molecular (5 studies), circuit (4 studies), and paradigm (3 studies) levels, exhibited dose-dependent mood improvement (20 short-term and 3 long-term studies). The subjective and neural effects of LSD were linked to the 5-HT2A receptor (molecular). Animal studies (14 studies) suggested LSD could mildly reinforce conditioned place preference without aversion and reduce responsiveness to other rewards. Findings on reward learning were inconsistent but hinted at potential associative learning enhancements. Reward valuation measures indicated potential reductions in effort expenditure for other reinforcers. CONCLUSION Our findings are consistent with our previous work, which indicated classical psychedelics, primarily serotonin 2A receptor agonists, enhanced reward responsiveness in healthy individuals and patient populations. Lysergic acid diethylamide exhibits a unique profile in the reward learning and valuation constructs. Using the RDoC-based framework, we identified areas for future research, enhancing our understanding of the impact of LSD on reward processing. However, applying RDoC to psychedelic research faces limitations due to diverse study designs that were not initially RDoC-oriented. Limitations include subjective outcome measure selection aligned with RDoC constructs and potential bias in synthesizing varied studies. Additionally, some human studies were open-label, introducing potential bias compared to randomized, blinded studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Niloufar Pouyan
- Michigan Psychedelic Center (M-PsyC), and Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center (CPFRC), University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, and Program in Biomedical Sciences (PIBS), University of Michigan Medical School, 1135 Catherine Street, Box 5619, 2960 Taubman Health Science Library, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Aracell Zist Darou pharmaceutical, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Farnaz Younesi Sisi
- Yaadmaan Institute for Brain, Cognition and Memory Studies, Tehran, Iran
- Cognitive Neurology and Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran
| | - Alireza Kargar
- Cognitive Neurology and Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Milan Scheidegger
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Roger S McIntyre
- Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit (MDPU), University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Jonathan D Morrow
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, and Program in Biomedical Sciences (PIBS), University of Michigan Medical School, 1135 Catherine Street, Box 5619, 2960 Taubman Health Science Library, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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Romaniuk L, MacSweeney N, Atkinson K, Chan SWY, Barbu MC, Lawrie SM, Whalley HC. Striatal correlates of Bayesian beliefs in self-efficacy in adolescents and their relation to mood and autonomy: a pilot study. Cereb Cortex Commun 2023; 4:tgad020. [PMID: 38089939 PMCID: PMC10712445 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgad020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Accepted: 10/25/2023] [Indexed: 02/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Major depressive disorder often originates in adolescence and is associated with long-term functional impairment. Mechanistically characterizing this heterogeneous illness could provide important leads for optimizing treatment. Importantly, reward learning is known to be disrupted in depression. In this pilot fMRI study of 21 adolescents (16-20 years), we assessed how reward network disruption impacts specifically on Bayesian belief representations of self-efficacy (SE-B) and their associated uncertainty (SE-U), using a modified instrumental learning task probing activation induced by the opportunity to choose, and an optimal Hierarchical Gaussian Filter computational model. SE-U engaged caudate, nucleus accumbens (NAcc), precuneus, posterior parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFWE < 0.005). Sparse partial least squares analysis identified SE-U striatal activation as associating with one's sense of perceived choice and depressive symptoms, particularly anhedonia and negative feelings about oneself. As Bayesian uncertainty modulates belief flexibility and their capacity to steer future actions, this suggests that these striatal signals may be informative developmentally, longitudinally and in assessing response to treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liana Romaniuk
- Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5H, United Kingdom
| | - Niamh MacSweeney
- Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5H, United Kingdom
| | - Kimberley Atkinson
- Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5H, United Kingdom
| | - Stella W Y Chan
- School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6ES, United Kingdom
| | - Miruna C Barbu
- Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5H, United Kingdom
| | - Stephen M Lawrie
- Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5H, United Kingdom
| | - Heather C Whalley
- Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5H, United Kingdom
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Heerema R, Carrillo P, Daunizeau J, Vinckier F, Pessiglione M. Mood fluctuations shift cost-benefit tradeoffs in economic decisions. Sci Rep 2023; 13:18173. [PMID: 37875525 PMCID: PMC10598198 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-45217-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 10/17/2023] [Indexed: 10/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Mood effects on economic choice seem blatantly irrational, but might rise from mechanisms adapted to natural environments. We have proposed a theory in which mood helps adapting the behaviour to statistical dependencies in the environment, by biasing the expected value of foraging actions (which involve taking risk, spending time and making effort to get more reward). Here, we tested the existence of this mechanism, using an established mood induction paradigm combined with independent economic choices that opposed small but uncostly rewards to larger but costly rewards (involving either risk, delay or effort). To maximise the sensitivity to mood fluctuations, we developed an algorithm ensuring that choice options were continuously adjusted to subjective indifference points. In 102 participants tested twice, we found that during episodes of positive mood (relative to negative mood), choices were biased towards better rewarded but costly options, irrespective of the cost type. Computational modelling confirmed that the incidental mood effect was best explained by a bias added to the expected value of costly options, prior to decision making. This bias is therefore automatically applied even in artificial environments where it is not adaptive, allowing mood to spill over many sorts of decisions and generate irrational behaviours.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roeland Heerema
- Motivation, Brain and Behavior (MBB) Lab, Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 75013, Paris, France.
- Sorbonne Université, Inserm U1127, CNRS U7225, 75013, Paris, France.
| | - Pablo Carrillo
- Motivation, Brain and Behavior (MBB) Lab, Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 75013, Paris, France
- Sorbonne Université, Inserm U1127, CNRS U7225, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Jean Daunizeau
- Motivation, Brain and Behavior (MBB) Lab, Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 75013, Paris, France
- Sorbonne Université, Inserm U1127, CNRS U7225, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Fabien Vinckier
- Motivation, Brain and Behavior (MBB) Lab, Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 75013, Paris, France
- Sorbonne Université, Inserm U1127, CNRS U7225, 75013, Paris, France
- Université Paris Cité, 75006, Paris, France
- Department of Psychiatry, Service Hospitalo-Universitaire, GHU Paris Psychiatrie and Neurosciences, 75014, Paris, France
| | - Mathias Pessiglione
- Motivation, Brain and Behavior (MBB) Lab, Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, 75013, Paris, France.
- Sorbonne Université, Inserm U1127, CNRS U7225, 75013, Paris, France.
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Brown L, White LK, Makhoul W, Teferi M, Sheline YI, Balderston NL. Role of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) in anxiety and cognition: Opportunities for intervention for anxiety-related disorders. Int J Clin Health Psychol 2023; 23:100385. [PMID: 37006335 PMCID: PMC10060180 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2023.100385] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/10/2023] [Indexed: 04/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Our objective was to review the literature on the parietal cortex and intraparietal sulcus (IPS) in anxiety-related disorders, as well as opportunities for using neuromodulation to target this region and reduce anxiety. We provide an overview of prior research demonstrating: 1) the importance of the IPS in attention, vigilance, and anxious arousal, 2) the potential for neuromodulation of the IPS to reduce unnecessary attention toward threat and anxious arousal as demonstrated in healthy samples; and 3) limited data on the potential for neuromodulation of the IPS to reduce hyper-attention toward threat and anxious arousal among clinical samples with anxiety-related disorders. Future research should evaluate the efficacy of IPS neuromodulation in fully powered clinical trials, as well as the value in augmenting evidence-based treatments for anxiety with IPS neuromodulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lily Brown
- Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Lauren K. White
- Lifespan Brain Institute, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Walid Makhoul
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Marta Teferi
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Yvette I. Sheline
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Nicholas L. Balderston
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
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39
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Wu J, Song J, He Y, Li Z, Deng H, Huang Z, Xie X, Wong NML, Tao J, Lee TMC, Chan CCH. Effect of Tai Chi on Young Adults with Subthreshold Depression via a Stress-Reward Complex: A Randomized Controlled Trial. SPORTS MEDICINE - OPEN 2023; 9:90. [PMID: 37768381 PMCID: PMC10539242 DOI: 10.1186/s40798-023-00637-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2023] [Accepted: 09/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Subthreshold depression is a highly prevalent mood disorder in young adults. Mind-body exercises, such as Tai Chi, have been adopted as interventions for clinical depressive symptoms. However, the possible effect and underlying mechanism of Tai Chi on subthreshold depression of young individuals remain unclear. This randomized controlled study aimed to evaluate the effects of Tai Chi training and tested the combined stress and reward circuitry model for subthreshold depression. RESULTS A total of 103 participants completed this trial, with 49 in the 12-week 24-style Tai Chi group and 54 participants in control group. Our results showed significantly lower scores on depressive symptoms (P = 0.002) and anxiety symptoms (P = 0.009) and higher scores on quality of life (P = 0.002) after Tai Chi training. There were significant reductions in salivary cortisol levels (P = 0.007) and putamen gray matter volume (P < 0.001) in the Tai Chi group. The changes in cortisol levels and putamen gray matter volume had direct (bootstrapping confidence interval [- 0.91, - 0.11]) and indirect effects (bootstrapping confidence interval [- 0.65, - 0.19]) on the changes induced by Tai Chi training on depressive symptoms, respectively. CONCLUSION The stress-reward complex results indicated an interaction between lowering stress levels and increasing reward circuitry activity associated with the alleviation of depressive symptoms among participants. The 12-week Tai Chi training was effective in improving the symptoms and quality of life of young adults with subthreshold depression. Trial Registration Chinese Registry of Clinical Trials (Registration Number: ChiCTR1900028289, Registered December 12, 2019).
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingsong Wu
- College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China
- The Academy of Rehabilitation Industry, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Jian Song
- College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China
- The Academy of Rehabilitation Industry, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Youze He
- College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China
- The Academy of Rehabilitation Industry, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhaoying Li
- College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Haiyin Deng
- College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhenming Huang
- College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiaoting Xie
- College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Nichol M L Wong
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Rm 656, The Jockey Club Tower, Pokfulam Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology and Human Neuroscience, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
| | - Jing Tao
- National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Rehabilitation Medicine Technology, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, People's Republic of China.
- Fujian Key Laboratory of Rehabilitation Technology, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1 Huatuo Road, Minhou Shangjie, Fuzhou, 350122, Fujian, People's Republic of China.
| | - Tatia M C Lee
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Rm 656, The Jockey Club Tower, Pokfulam Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
- Laboratory of Neuropsychology and Human Neuroscience, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
| | - Chetwyn C H Chan
- Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
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40
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Potsch L, Rief W. Transdiagnostic considerations of the relationship between reward sensitivity and psychopathological symptoms - a cross-lagged panel analysis. BMC Psychiatry 2023; 23:650. [PMID: 37667190 PMCID: PMC10478275 DOI: 10.1186/s12888-023-05139-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 08/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Reward sensitivity constitutes a potential key mechanism regarding the etiology and maintenance of mental disorders, especially depression. However, due to a lack of longitudinal studies, the temporal dynamics are not clear yet. Although some evidence indicates that reward processing could be a transdiagnostic mechanism of disorders, these observations could be also a product of comorbidity with depression. This study aimed at investigating the temporal dynamics of reward sensitivity and the course of psychopathological symptoms in a longitudinal investigation, while taking a possible mediating role of depression into account. METHODS We conducted a three-wave longitudinal online survey with a 4-week interval. A total of N = 453 participants filled out all three questionnaires. Reward sensitivity was assessed with the Positive Valence System Scale-21 (PVSS-21), depression with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), eating disorder symptoms with the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire-8 (EDE-Q-8), social anxiety with the Mini-social phobia inventory (Mini-SPIN) and alcohol consumption with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C). Cross-lagged panels and mediation analyses were calculated using path analyses. RESULTS Depressive and eating disorder symptoms predicted reward insensitivity at later points in time. Effects were larger from T2 to T3. A bidirectional relationship concerning social anxiety was found. Higher alcohol consumption predicted higher reward sensitivity. Depression at T2 fully mediated the association between psychopathological symptoms at T1 and reward sensitivity at T3 for social anxiety and eating disorder symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Our findings imply that reduced reward sensitivity seems to be a consequence rather than an antecedent of psychopathological symptoms. Comorbid depression plays a crucial role in other mental disorders regarding observed hyposensitivity towards rewards. Therefore, our results do not support a transdiagnostic notion of reward sensitivity, but they indicate a potential role of reward sensitivity for symptom persistence. TRIAL REGISTRATION The study was preregistered at the Open Science Framework (OSF) ( https://archive.org/details/osf-registrations-6n3s8-v1 ; registration DOI https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/6N3S8 ).
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Affiliation(s)
- L Potsch
- Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Gutenbergstr. 18, D-35032, Marburg, Germany.
| | - W Rief
- Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Gutenbergstr. 18, D-35032, Marburg, Germany
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41
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Bress JN, Arslanoglou E, Banerjee S, Alexopoulos GS, Kiosses DN. Positive valence system function and anhedonia in middle-aged and older adults at high suicide risk. Biol Psychol 2023; 182:108647. [PMID: 37499781 PMCID: PMC10529097 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2022] [Revised: 06/08/2023] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 07/29/2023]
Abstract
Positive valence systems are disrupted in late-life depression and in individuals at risk for suicide. The reward positivity (RewP) is an event-related potential measure of positive valence system function that relates to depression and anhedonia in children and young adults. However, it is unclear whether a reliable RewP signal can be elicited in middle-aged and older adults at high risk for suicide and, if so, whether this signal is similarly associated with clinical symptoms. In the current study, a RewP was elicited with a standard gambling task in middle-aged and older adults (N = 31) at discharge from a hospitalization for suicidal thought or behaviors. The resulting electrocortical response differed significantly for monetary wins compared to losses. Internal reliability of the RewP and the feedback negativity (FN) to monetary loss was good to excellent. Internal reliability of difference measures was lower but still largely acceptable, with residualized differences scores demonstrating stronger reliability than subtraction-based scores. A smaller residualized RewP, after accounting for the influence of the FN, was associated with greater severity of lassitude, an index of appetitive anhedonia. These findings set the groundwork for future studies of positive valence system function and depression in middle-aged and older adults at high risk for suicide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer N Bress
- Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, White Plains, New York.
| | - Elizabeth Arslanoglou
- Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, White Plains, New York
| | - Samprit Banerjee
- Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York
| | - George S Alexopoulos
- Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, White Plains, New York
| | - Dimitris N Kiosses
- Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, White Plains, New York
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Chai Y, Sheline YI, Oathes DJ, Balderston NL, Rao H, Yu M. Functional connectomics in depression: insights into therapies. Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:814-832. [PMID: 37286432 PMCID: PMC10476530 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Revised: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 05/09/2023] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Depression is a common mental disorder characterized by heterogeneous cognitive and behavioral symptoms. The emerging research paradigm of functional connectomics has provided a quantitative theoretical framework and analytic tools for parsing variations in the organization and function of brain networks in depression. In this review, we first discuss recent progress in depression-associated functional connectome variations. We then discuss treatment-specific brain network outcomes in depression and propose a hypothetical model highlighting the advantages and uniqueness of each treatment in relation to the modulation of specific brain network connectivity and symptoms of depression. Finally, we look to the future promise of combining multiple treatment types in clinical practice, using multisite datasets and multimodal neuroimaging approaches, and identifying biological depression subtypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ya Chai
- Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence for Information Behavior (Ministry of Education and Shanghai), School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China; Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Yvette I Sheline
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress (CNDS), Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - Desmond J Oathes
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress (CNDS), Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Penn Brain Science, Translation, Innovation and Modulation Center (brainSTIM), Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - Nicholas L Balderston
- Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress (CNDS), Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Hengyi Rao
- Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence for Information Behavior (Ministry of Education and Shanghai), School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China; Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - Meichen Yu
- Indiana Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA; Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana University Network Science Institute, Bloomington, IN, USA.
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Orihuel J, Capellán R, Casquero-Veiga M, Soto-Montenegro ML, Desco M, Oteo-Vives M, Ibáñez-Moragues M, Magro-Calvo N, Luján VM, Morcillo MÁ, Ambrosio E, Higuera-Matas A. The long-term effects of adolescent Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on brain structure and function assessed through neuroimaging techniques in male and female rats. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 2023; 74:47-63. [PMID: 37276836 DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2023.05.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2022] [Revised: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 05/22/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Several studies performed on human subjects have examined the effects of adolescent cannabis consumption on brain structure or function using brain imaging techniques. However, the evidence from these studies is usually heterogenous and affected by several confounding variables. Animal models of adolescent cannabinoid exposure may help to overcome these difficulties. In this exploratory study, we aim to increase our understanding of the protracted effects of adolescent Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in rats of both sexes using magnetic resonance (MR) to obtain volumetric data, assess grey and white matter microstructure with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and measure brain metabolites with 1H-MR spectroscopy (MRS); in addition, we studied brain function using positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose as the tracer. THC-exposed rats exhibited volumetric and microstructural alterations in the striatum, globus pallidus, lateral ventricles, thalamus, and septal nuclei in a sex-specific manner. THC administration also reduced fractional anisotropy in several white matter tracts, prominently in rostral sections, while in vivo MRS identified lower levels of cortical choline compounds. THC-treated males had increased metabolism in the cerebellum and olfactory bulb and decreased metabolism in the cingulate cortex. By contrast, THC-treated females showed hypermetabolism in a cluster of voxels comprising the entorhinal piriform cortices and in the cingulate cortex. These results indicate that mild THC exposure during adolescence leaves a lingering mark on brain structure and function in a sex-dependant manner. Some of the changes found here resemble those observed in human studies and highlight the importance of studying sex-specific effects in cannabinoid research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier Orihuel
- Department of Psychobiology, School of Psychology, National University for Distance Learning (UNED), C/Juan del Rosal 10, Madrid, Spain
| | - Roberto Capellán
- Department of Psychobiology, School of Psychology, National University for Distance Learning (UNED), C/Juan del Rosal 10, Madrid, Spain
| | - Marta Casquero-Veiga
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain; CIBER de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain; Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares, Madrid, Spain
| | - María Luisa Soto-Montenegro
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain; CIBER de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain; Grupo de Fisiopatología y Farmacología del Sistema Digestivo de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (NEUGUT), Madrid, Spain
| | - Manuel Desco
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain; CIBER de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain; Departamento de Bioingeniería e Ingeniería Aeroespacial, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain; Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares, Madrid, Spain
| | - Marta Oteo-Vives
- CIEMAT - Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology, Medical Applications of Ionizing Radiations Unit, Madrid, Spain
| | - Marta Ibáñez-Moragues
- CIEMAT - Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology, Medical Applications of Ionizing Radiations Unit, Madrid, Spain
| | - Natalia Magro-Calvo
- CIEMAT - Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology, Medical Applications of Ionizing Radiations Unit, Madrid, Spain
| | - Víctor M Luján
- CIEMAT - Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology, Medical Applications of Ionizing Radiations Unit, Madrid, Spain
| | - Miguel Ángel Morcillo
- CIEMAT - Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology, Medical Applications of Ionizing Radiations Unit, Madrid, Spain
| | - Emilio Ambrosio
- Department of Psychobiology, School of Psychology, National University for Distance Learning (UNED), C/Juan del Rosal 10, Madrid, Spain
| | - Alejandro Higuera-Matas
- Department of Psychobiology, School of Psychology, National University for Distance Learning (UNED), C/Juan del Rosal 10, Madrid, Spain.
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44
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Toobaei M, Taghavi M, Goodarzi MA, Sarafraz M, Jobson L. Exploring expected reward and efficacy in enhancing cognitive control in patients with depression. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2023; 45:636-646. [PMID: 38059811 DOI: 10.1080/13803395.2023.2287782] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Depression is associated with impairments in cognitive control. Considering the lack of mechanistic models accounting for cognitive control deficits in depression, the expected value of control (EVC) theory offers a mechanistic view for allocating cognitive control emphasizing motivational components (efficacy, value). Efficacy refers to the possibility that an effort leads to a special outcome and reward refers to the value (amount) associated with the outcome. This study aimed to examine the role of the EVC in depression. METHOD This study used a within-between-subject design. Participants with depression (n = 36) and healthy controls (n = 31) completed a clinical diagnostic interview, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, the General Health Questionnaire-12, and a computer-based incentivized Stroop Color-Word Paradigm in which levels of efficacy (high vs. low) and the amount of rewards (high vs. low) were presented as cues before target stimuli. RESULTS We found significant interaction effects of group × efficacy and efficacy × reward in terms of reaction time in the Stroop Paradigm. Follow-up analyses indicated the Depressed group were significantly slower than Controls on high efficacy trials, but the two groups did not differ significantly on low efficacy trials. Additionally, on high efficacy trials, reward did not influence performance, but on low efficacy trials, high reward improved performance in both groups. LIMITATION Lack of neurological measures and eye tracking techniques. CONCLUSION Overall, our findings suggest that reward and efficacy may jointly improve cognitive control allocation and highlight the need for further research examining EVC theory as a mechanistic account of cognitive control deficits in depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mostafa Toobaei
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Mohammadreza Taghavi
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Mohammad Ali Goodarzi
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Mehdireza Sarafraz
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Laura Jobson
- School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
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45
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Dickey L, Pegg S, Cárdenas EF, Green H, Dao A, Waxmonsky J, Pérez-Edgar K, Kujawa A. Neural Predictors of Improvement With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescents With Depression: An Examination of Reward Responsiveness and Emotion Regulation. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 2023; 51:1069-1082. [PMID: 37084164 PMCID: PMC10119540 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-023-01054-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/09/2023] [Indexed: 04/22/2023]
Abstract
Earlier depression onsets are associated with more debilitating courses and poorer life quality, highlighting the importance of effective early intervention. Many youths fail to improve with evidence-based treatments for depression, likely due in part to heterogeneity within the disorder. Multi-method assessment of individual differences in positive and negative emotion processing could improve predictions of treatment outcomes. The current study examined self-report and neurophysiological measures of reward responsiveness and emotion regulation as predictors of response to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Adolescents (14-18 years) with depression (N = 70) completed monetary reward and emotion regulation tasks while electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded, and self-report measures of reward responsiveness, emotion regulation, and depressive symptoms at intake. Adolescents then completed a 16-session group CBT program, with depressive symptoms and clinician-rated improvement assessed across treatment. Lower reward positivity amplitudes, reflecting reduced neural reward responsiveness, predicted lower depressive symptoms with treatment. Larger late positive potential residuals during reappraisal, potentially reflecting difficulty with emotion regulation, predicted greater clinician-rated improvement. Self-report measures were not significant predictors. Results support the clinical utility of EEG measures, with impairments in positive and negative emotion processing predicting greater change with interventions that target these processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsay Dickey
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
| | - Samantha Pegg
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Emilia F Cárdenas
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Haley Green
- Department of Psychology, Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | - Anh Dao
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - James Waxmonsky
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA
| | - Koraly Pérez-Edgar
- Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Autumn Kujawa
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
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Burrows K, McNaughton BA, Figueroa-Hall LK, Spechler PA, Kuplicki R, Victor TA, Aupperle R, Khalsa SS, Savitz JB, Teague TK, Paulus MP, Stewart JL. Elevated serum leptin is associated with attenuated reward anticipation in major depressive disorder independent of peripheral C-reactive protein levels. Sci Rep 2023; 13:11313. [PMID: 37443383 PMCID: PMC10344903 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-38410-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with immunologic and metabolic alterations linked to central processing dysfunctions, including attenuated reward processing. This study investigated the associations between inflammation, metabolic hormones (leptin, insulin, adiponectin), and reward-related brain processing in MDD patients with high (MDD-High) and low (MDD-Low) C-reactive protein (CRP) levels compared to healthy comparison subjects (HC). Participants completed a blood draw and a monetary incentive delay task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Although groups did not differ in insulin or adiponectin concentrations, both MDD-High (Wilcoxon p = 0.004, d = 0.65) and MDD-Low (Wilcoxon p = 0.046, d = 0.53) showed higher leptin concentrations than HC but did not differ from each other. Across MDD participants, higher leptin levels were associated with lower brain activation during reward anticipation in the left insula (r = - 0.30, p = 0.004) and left dorsolateral putamen (r = -- 0.24, p = 0.025). In contrast, within HC, higher leptin concentrations were associated with higher activation during reward anticipation in the same regions (insula: r = 0.40, p = 0.007; putamen: r = 0.37, p = 0.014). Depression may be characterized by elevated pro-inflammatory signaling via leptin concentrations through alternate inflammatory pathways distinct to CRP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaiping Burrows
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA.
| | - Breanna A McNaughton
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
| | - Leandra K Figueroa-Hall
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Philip A Spechler
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
| | - Rayus Kuplicki
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
| | - Teresa A Victor
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
| | - Robin Aupperle
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Sahib S Khalsa
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Jonathan B Savitz
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - T Kent Teague
- Departments of Surgery and Psychiatry, School of Community Medicine, The University of Oklahoma, Tulsa, OK, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, The Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa, OK, USA
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
| | - Martin P Paulus
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Jennifer L Stewart
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA
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Oh H, Lee J, Patriquin MA, Oldham J, Salas R. Reward Processing in Psychiatric Inpatients With Depression. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2023; 8:731-740. [PMID: 34174484 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2020] [Revised: 05/05/2021] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Previous neuroimaging studies have investigated reward-processing dysfunction in major depressive disorder and have led to the common finding that major depressive disorder is associated with reduced reward responses within the reward circuit. Yet it is unclear whether such reward-processing dysfunction is specifically associated with the severity of depressive symptoms in major depressive disorder or is associated with common comorbidities. METHODS We investigated reward-processing differences using a classic juice-delivery functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment to compare psychiatric patients with severe depressive symptoms (DEPs) to both psychiatric control subjects (PCs) and healthy control subjects. In this study, the DEPs (n = 108) were matched to healthy control subjects (n = 62) for demographic characteristics and to the PCs (n = 108) for demographics and comorbid psychiatric diagnoses. An a priori region of interest, the left putamen, was selected using previous studies. An exploratory whole-brain analysis was performed to explore for nonhypothesized regions. RESULTS Relative to the PCs and healthy control subjects, the DEP group showed smaller responses to reward stimulus in the left putamen. Whole-brain exploratory analysis revealed that DEPs had significantly lower responses to reward stimulus in the bilateral dorsal striatum (putamen and caudate), middle frontal gyrus, left precentral gyrus, and middle cingulate cortex than PCs. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that DEPs may have a lesser ability to modulate behavior as a function of reward, especially in those individuals who experience the most severe depressive symptoms. In both DEPs and PCs, the severity of depressive symptoms was related to reduced reward responses in the left putamen.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyuntaek Oh
- Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; The Menninger Clinic, Houston, Texas
| | - Jaehoon Lee
- Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership, College of Education, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
| | - Michelle A Patriquin
- Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; The Menninger Clinic, Houston, Texas
| | - John Oldham
- Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; The Menninger Clinic, Houston, Texas
| | - Ramiro Salas
- Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; The Menninger Clinic, Houston, Texas; Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; Center for Translational Research on Inflammatory Diseases, Michael E DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, Texas.
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Kaske EA, Chen CS, Meyer C, Yang F, Ebitz B, Grissom N, Kapoor A, Darrow DP, Herman AB. Prolonged Physiological Stress Is Associated With a Lower Rate of Exploratory Learning That Is Compounded by Depression. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2023; 8:703-711. [PMID: 36894434 PMCID: PMC11268379 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.12.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2022] [Revised: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Stress is a major risk factor for depression, and both are associated with important changes in decision-making patterns. However, decades of research have only weakly connected physiological measurements of stress to the subjective experience of depression. Here, we examined the relationship between prolonged physiological stress, mood, and explore-exploit decision making in a population navigating a dynamic environment under stress: health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS We measured hair cortisol levels in health care workers who completed symptom surveys and performed an explore-exploit restless-bandit decision-making task; 32 participants were included in the final analysis. Hidden Markov and reinforcement learning models assessed task behavior. RESULTS Participants with higher hair cortisol exhibited less exploration (r = -0.36, p = .046). Higher cortisol levels predicted less learning during exploration (β = -0.42, false discovery rate [FDR]-corrected p [pFDR] = .022). Importantly, mood did not independently correlate with cortisol concentration, but rather explained additional variance (β = 0.46, pFDR = .022) and strengthened the relationship between higher cortisol and lower levels of exploratory learning (β = -0.47, pFDR = .022) in a joint model. These results were corroborated by a reinforcement learning model, which revealed less learning with higher hair cortisol and low mood (β = -0.67, pFDR = .002). CONCLUSIONS These results imply that prolonged physiological stress may limit learning from new information and lead to cognitive rigidity, potentially contributing to burnout. Decision-making measures link subjective mood states to measured physiological stress, suggesting that they should be incorporated into future biomarker studies of mood and stress conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erika A Kaske
- University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | - Cathy S Chen
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | - Collin Meyer
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | - Flora Yang
- University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | - Becket Ebitz
- Department of Neuroscience, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Nicola Grissom
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | - Amita Kapoor
- Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
| | - David P Darrow
- Department of Neurosurgery, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | - Alexander B Herman
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Vandendriessche H, Demmou A, Bavard S, Yadak J, Lemogne C, Mauras T, Palminteri S. Contextual influence of reinforcement learning performance of depression: evidence for a negativity bias? Psychol Med 2023; 53:4696-4706. [PMID: 35726513 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291722001593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUNDS Value-based decision-making impairment in depression is a complex phenomenon: while some studies did find evidence of blunted reward learning and reward-related signals in the brain, others indicate no effect. Here we test whether such reward sensitivity deficits are dependent on the overall value of the decision problem. METHODS We used a two-armed bandit task with two different contexts: one 'rich', one 'poor' where both options were associated with an overall positive, negative expected value, respectively. We tested patients (N = 30) undergoing a major depressive episode and age, gender and socio-economically matched controls (N = 26). Learning performance followed by a transfer phase, without feedback, were analyzed to distangle between a decision or a value-update process mechanism. Finally, we used computational model simulation and fitting to link behavioral patterns to learning biases. RESULTS Control subjects showed similar learning performance in the 'rich' and the 'poor' contexts, while patients displayed reduced learning in the 'poor' context. Analysis of the transfer phase showed that the context-dependent impairment in patients generalized, suggesting that the effect of depression has to be traced to the outcome encoding. Computational model-based results showed that patients displayed a higher learning rate for negative compared to positive outcomes (the opposite was true in controls). CONCLUSIONS Our results illustrate that reinforcement learning performances in depression depend on the value of the context. We show that depressive patients have a specific trouble in contexts with an overall negative state value, which in our task is consistent with a negativity bias at the learning rates level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henri Vandendriessche
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives Computationnelles, INSERM U960, Paris, France
- Département d'Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France
| | - Amel Demmou
- Unité Psychiatrie Adultes, Hôpital Cochin Port Royal, Paris, France
| | - Sophie Bavard
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives Computationnelles, INSERM U960, Paris, France
- Département d'Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France
- Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Julien Yadak
- Unité Psychiatrie Adultes, Hôpital Cochin Port Royal, Paris, France
| | - Cédric Lemogne
- Université Paris Cité, INSERM U1266, Institute de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences de Paris, Paris, France
- Service de Psychiatrie de l'adulte, AP-HP, Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu, Paris, France
| | - Thomas Mauras
- Groupe Hospitalier Universitaire, GHU paris psychiatrie neurosciences, Paris, France
| | - Stefano Palminteri
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives Computationnelles, INSERM U960, Paris, France
- Département d'Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France
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50
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Suarez-Jimenez B, Lazarov A, Zhu X, Pine DS, Bar-Haim Y, Neria Y. Attention allocation to negatively-valenced stimuli in PTSD is associated with reward-related neural pathways. Psychol Med 2023; 53:4666-4674. [PMID: 35652602 PMCID: PMC9715854 DOI: 10.1017/s003329172200157x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Revised: 03/13/2022] [Accepted: 05/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND In a recent eye-tracking study we found a differential dwell time pattern for negatively-valenced and neutral faces among patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma-exposed healthy control (TEHCs), and healthy control (HC) participants. Here, we explored whether these group differences relate to resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) patterns of brain areas previously linked to both attention processes and PTSD. These encompass the amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), and nucleus accumbens (NAcc). METHODS Ten minutes magnetic resonance imaging rsFC scans were recorded in 17 PTSD patients, 21 TEHCs, and 16 HCs. Participants then completed a free-viewing eye-tracking task assessing attention allocation outside the scanner. Dwell time on negatively-valenced stimuli (DT%) were assessed relative to functional connectivity in the aforementioned seed regions of interest (amygdala, dACC, dlPFC, vlPFC, and NAcc) to whole-brain voxel-wise rsFC. RESULTS As previously reported, group differences occurred in attention allocation to negative-valence stimuli, with longer dwell time on negatively valence stimuli in the PTSD and TEHC groups than the HC group. Higher DT% correlated with weaker NAcc-orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) connectivity in patients with PTSD. Conversely, a positive association emerged in the HC group between DT% and NAcc-OFC connectivity. CONCLUSIONS While exploratory in nature, present findings may suggest that reward-related brain areas are involved in disengaging attention from negative-valenced stimuli, and possibly in regulating ensuing negative emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez
- Department of Neuroscience, The Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA
| | - Amit Lazarov
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Xi Zhu
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA
| | - Daniel S. Pine
- Section on Developmental Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Yair Bar-Haim
- School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Yuval Neria
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA
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