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Weinstein JJ, Rogers BP, Taylor WD, Boyd BD, Cowan RL, Shelton KM, Salomon RM. Effects of acute tryptophan depletion on raphé functional connectivity in depression. Psychiatry Res 2015; 234:164-71. [PMID: 26411798 PMCID: PMC4631618 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.08.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2014] [Revised: 07/21/2015] [Accepted: 08/31/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Depression remains a great societal burden and a major treatment challenge. Most antidepressant medications target serotonergic raphé nuclei. Acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) modulates serotonin function. To better understand the raphé's role in mood networks, we studied raphé functional connectivity in depression. Fifteen depressed patients were treated with sertraline for 12 weeks and scanned during ATD and sham conditions. Based on our previous findings in a separate cohort, resting state MRI functional connectivity between raphé and other depression-related regions (ROIs) was analyzed in narrow frequency bands. ATD decreased raphé functional connectivity with the bilateral thalamus within 0.025-0.05 Hz, and also decreased raphé functional connectivity with the right pregenual anterior cingulate cortex within 0.05-0.1 Hz. Using the control broadband filter 0.01-0.1 Hz, no significant differences in raphé-ROI functional connectivity were observed. Post-hoc analysis by remission status suggested increased raphé functional connectivity with left pregenual anterior cingulate cortex in remitters (n=10) and decreased raphé functional connectivity with left thalamus in non-remitters (n=5), both within 0.025-0.05 Hz. Reducing serotonin function appears to alter coordination of these mood-related networks in specific, low frequency ranges. For examination of effects of reduced serotonin function on mood-related networks, specific low frequency BOLD fMRI signals can identify regions implicated in neural circuitry and may enable clinically-relevant interpretation of functional connectivity measures. The biological significance of these low frequency signals detected in the raphé merits further study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jodi J. Weinstein
- Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
(VUMC), Nashville, TN, USA,Correspondence to: Columbia University Medical Center,
Department of Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive,
New York, NY 10032, USA
| | - Baxter P. Rogers
- Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
(VUMC), Nashville, TN, USA,Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, VUMC,
Nashville, TN, USA,Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
| | - Warren D. Taylor
- Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
(VUMC), Nashville, TN, USA,The Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC),
VA Medical Center, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, USA
| | - Brian D. Boyd
- Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
(VUMC), Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Ronald L. Cowan
- Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
(VUMC), Nashville, TN, USA,Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, VUMC,
Nashville, TN, USA
| | - K. Maureen Shelton
- Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
(VUMC), Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Ronald M. Salomon
- Psychiatric Research Institute, University of Arkansas for
Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA,Correspondence to: University of Arkansas Medical School
Psychiatric Research Institute, 4301 West Markham Street, Slot 554, Little Rock, AR 72205,
USA. (J.J. Weinstein)
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Mies GW, van der Veen FM, Tulen JHM, Birkenhäger TK, Hengeveld MW, van der Molen MW. Drug-free patients with major depression show an increased electrophysiological response to valid and invalid feedback. Psychol Med 2011; 41:2515-2525. [PMID: 21733223 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291711000778] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Depressed patients are biased in their response to negative information. They have been found to show a maladaptive behavioral and aberrant electrophysiological response to negative feedback. The aim of this study was to investigate the behavioral and electrophysiological response to feedback validity in drug-free depressed patients. METHOD Fifteen drug-free in-patients with unipolar major depression disorder (MDD) and 30 demographically matched controls performed a time-estimation task in which they received valid and invalid (i.e. related and unrelated to performance) positive and negative feedback. The number of behavioral adjustments to the feedback and the feedback-related negativity (FRN) were measured. RESULTS Patients made fewer correct adjustments after valid negative feedback than controls, and their FRNs were larger. Neither patients nor controls adjusted their time estimates following invalid negative feedback. CONCLUSIONS The FRN results suggest that depressed drug-free in-patients have an atypical rostral anterior cingulate response to feedback that is independent of feedback validity. Their behavioral response to invalid negative feedback, however, is not impaired. This study confirms the notion that the behavioral responses of depressed individuals to negative feedback are context dependent.
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Affiliation(s)
- G W Mies
- Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Beacher FDCC, Gray MA, Minati L, Whale R, Harrison NA, Critchley HD. Acute tryptophan depletion attenuates conscious appraisal of social emotional signals in healthy female volunteers. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2011; 213:603-13. [PMID: 20596858 PMCID: PMC3032182 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-010-1897-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2010] [Accepted: 05/10/2010] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
RATIONALE Acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) decreases levels of central serotonin. ATD thus enables the cognitive effects of serotonin to be studied, with implications for the understanding of psychiatric conditions, including depression. OBJECTIVE To determine the role of serotonin in conscious (explicit) and unconscious/incidental processing of emotional information. MATERIALS AND METHODS A randomized, double-blind, cross-over design was used with 15 healthy female participants. Subjective mood was recorded at baseline and after 4 h, when participants performed an explicit emotional face processing task, and a task eliciting unconscious processing of emotionally aversive and neutral images presented subliminally using backward masking. RESULTS ATD was associated with a robust reduction in plasma tryptophan at 4 h but had no effect on mood or autonomic physiology. ATD was associated with significantly lower attractiveness ratings for happy faces and attenuation of intensity/arousal ratings of angry faces. ATD also reduced overall reaction times on the unconscious perception task, but there was no interaction with emotional content of masked stimuli. ATD did not affect breakthrough perception (accuracy in identification) of masked images. CONCLUSIONS ATD attenuates the attractiveness of positive faces and the negative intensity of threatening faces, suggesting that serotonin contributes specifically to the appraisal of the social salience of both positive and negative salient social emotional cues. We found no evidence that serotonin affects unconscious processing of negative emotional stimuli. These novel findings implicate serotonin in conscious aspects of active social and behavioural engagement and extend knowledge regarding the effects of ATD on emotional perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix D C C Beacher
- Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), Brighton & Hove, UK.
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