Davey Christopher G, Yücel Murat, Allen Nicholas B
ORYGEN Research Centre, The University of Melbourne, 35 Poplar Road, Parkville, Vic. 3052, Australia.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2008;32(1):1-19. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.04.016. Epub 2007 May 16.
Adolescent development is accompanied by the emergence of a population-wide increase in vulnerability to depression that is maintained through adulthood. We provide a model for understanding how this vulnerability to depression arises, and why depression is so often precipitated by social rejection or loss of status during this phase. There is substantial remodeling and maturation of the dopaminergic reward system and the prefrontal cortex during adolescence, that coincides with the adolescent entering the complex world of adult peer and romantic relationships, where the rewards that can be obtained (feelings such as belonging, romantic love, status and agency) are abstract and temporally distant from the proximal context. Development of the prefrontal cortex makes it possible to pursue such complex and distal rewards, which are, however, tenuous and more readily frustrated than more immediate rewards. We hypothesize that when these distant rewards are frustrated they suppress the reward system, and that when such suppression is extensive and occurs for long enough, the clinical picture that results is one of depression.
青少年的成长伴随着全人群中对抑郁症易感性的增加，这种易感性会持续到成年期。我们提供了一个模型，用于理解这种抑郁症易感性是如何产生的，以及为什么在这个阶段抑郁症常常由社会排斥或地位丧失引发。在青少年时期，多巴胺能奖赏系统和前额叶皮质会发生大量重塑和成熟，这与青少年进入成人同伴和浪漫关系的复杂世界相吻合，在这个世界中可以获得的奖赏（如归属感、浪漫爱情、地位和自主感等情感）是抽象的，且在时间上与近端情境相距甚远。前额叶皮质的发育使人们能够追求这种复杂而遥远的奖赏，然而，这些奖赏比更直接的奖赏更脆弱，更容易受挫。我们假设，当这些遥远的奖赏受挫时，它们会抑制奖赏系统，而当这种抑制广泛且持续足够长的时间时，由此产生的临床症状就是抑郁症。
