Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Germany.
World J Biol Psychiatry. 2009;10(4 Pt 2):377-84. doi: 10.1080/15622970701513756.
Reduced dopaminergic transmission has been implicated in the pathophysiology of major depression. Furthermore, dopaminergic neurotransmission plays an important role in the physiology of visual contrast sensitivity (CS). To test the hypothesis that altered dopaminergic neurotransmission plays a role in major depression we measured contrast sensitivity in patients with major depression and in healthy control subjects.
Twenty-eight patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder were compared to 21 age-matched control subjects on their ability to detect a Gabor target with slightly elevated luminance contrast embedded in seven equi-contrast distracters.
Contrast discrimination thresholds were significantly elevated in unmedicated and medicated patients with major depression compared to control subjects, at all pedestal contrast levels tested.
Contrast discrimination performance is reduced in depressive patients and might reflect a state of altered dopaminergic neurotransmission.
多巴胺能传递的减少与重度抑郁症的病理生理学有关。此外，多巴胺能神经传递在视觉对比度敏感度（CS）的生理学中起着重要作用。为了验证多巴胺能神经传递改变在重度抑郁症中的作用的假设，我们测量了重度抑郁症患者和健康对照组的对比敏感度。
将 28 名被诊断患有重度抑郁症的患者与 21 名年龄匹配的对照组进行比较，以评估他们检测在七个等对比度干扰器中嵌入的略微增加亮度对比度的 Gabor 目标的能力。
与对照组相比，未用药和用药的重度抑郁症患者在所有测试的基底对比度水平上的对比度辨别阈值显著升高。
抑郁患者的对比度辨别性能降低，可能反映了多巴胺能神经传递改变的状态。
