Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

INTRODUCTION: Anhedonia, a loss of interest and pleasure in normally rewarding stimuli, is a key diagnostic criterion for major depression. It has been suggested that deficits in the processing of reward-relevant stimuli could represent an endophenotype for depression. We hypothesized that people at risk of depression by virtue of a personal history of the illness would show impaired neural responses to a primary rewarding stimulus. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured the neural response to the sight and flavor of chocolate, and their combination, in 13 unmedicated recovered patients with a history of major depression and 14 healthy controls matched for age and gender. We also examined a control aversive condition consisting of the sight of moldy strawberries and a corresponding unpleasant taste. Participants simultaneously recorded subjective ratings of "pleasantness," "intensity," and "wanting." RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Despite no differences between the groups in stimulus ratings, patients showed decreased neural responses to the pleasant stimulus in the ventral striatum and increases in the caudate nucleus to the aversive stimulus. Furthermore, patients had a diminished neural supralinearity response (the potentiation produced by simultaneous presentation of the sight and flavor of the stimuli) in the prefrontal cortex for both aversive and pleasant conditions. Patients recovered from depression appear to have deficits in the neural basis of reward and may also have impairments in the cross-modal integration of sensory stimuli. CONCLUSION: These findings support the view that abnormal neural responses to reward may be an endophenotype for depression and a potential target for intervention and prevention strategies.

Original publication

DOI

10.1007/s00213-009-1573-9

Type

Journal article

Journal

Psychopharmacology

Publication Date

2009

Volume

205

Pages

667 - 677

Keywords

Adult Basal Ganglia/*physiology Case-Control Studies Caudate Nucleus/*physiology Depression/diagnosis/*physiopathology/*psychology Female Humans Magnetic Resonance Imaging Male Prefrontal Cortex/*physiology *Reward