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Striatal reactivity to reward under threat-of-shock and working memory load in adults at increased familial risk for major depression: A preliminary study

  • Gaillard, Claudie IReach Lab, Unit of Clinical and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland - Section on Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
  • Guillod, Matthias IReach Lab, Unit of Clinical and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Ernst, Monique Section on Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
  • Federspiel, Andrea Psychiatric Neuroimaging Unit, Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • Schoebi, Dominik Unit of Clinical Family Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Recabarren, Romina Evelyn IReach Lab, Unit of Clinical and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Ouyang, Xinyi iBM Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Mueller-Pfeiffer, Christoph Department of Consultation-Liaison-Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  • Horschg, Antje Institute of Higher Education and Research in Healthcare, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Homan, Philipp Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, New York, New York, USA
  • Wiest, Roland Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Hospital of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • Hasler, Gregor Unit of Psychiatry Research, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Martin Sölch, Chantal IReach Lab, Unit of Clinical and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
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    2020
Published in:
  • NeuroImage: Clinical. - 2020, vol. 26, p. 102193
English Introduction: Anhedonia, a core symptom of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), manifests as a lack or loss of motivation as reflected by decreased reward responsiveness, at both behavioral and neural (i.e., striatum) levels. Exposure to stressful life events is another important risk factor for MDD. However, the mechanisms linking reward-deficit and stress to MDD remain poorly understood. Here, we explore whether the effects of stress exposure on reward processing might differentiate between Healthy Vulnerable adults (HVul, i.e., positive familial MDD) from Healthy Controls (HCon). Furthermore, the well- described reduction in cognitive resources in MDD might facilitate the stress- induced decrease in reward responsiveness in HVul individuals. Accordingly, this study includes a manipulation of cognitive resources to address the latter possibility.Methods: 16 HVul (12 females) and 16 gender- and age-matched HCon completed an fMRI study, during which they performed a working memory reward task. Three factors were manipulated: reward (reward, no- reward), cognitive resources (working memory at low and high load), and stress level (no-shock, unpredictable threat-of-shock). Only the reward anticipation phase was analyzed. Imaging analyses focused on striatal function.Results: Compared to HCon, HVul showed lower activation in the caudate nucleus across all conditions. The HVul group also exhibited lower stress-related activation in the nucleus accumbens, but only in the low working memory (WM) load condition. Moreover, while stress potentiated putamen reactivity to reward cues in HVul when the task was more demanding (high WM load), stress blunted putamen reactivity in both groups when no reward was at stake.Conclusion: Findings suggest that HVul might be at increased risk of developing anhedonic symptoms due to weaker encoding of reward value, higher difficulty to engage in goal-oriented behaviors and increased sensitivity to negative feedback, particularly in stressful contexts. These findings open new avenues for a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying how the complex interaction between the systems of stress and reward responsiveness contribute to the vulnerability to MDD, and how cognitive resources might modulate this interaction.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Master en médecine
Language
  • English
Classification
Biology
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/308739
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