Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America.
Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, Belmont, MA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Jan 4;14(1):e0209361. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209361. eCollection 2019.
Altered reward processing is a transdiagnostic factor implicated in a wide range of psychiatric disorders. While prior animal and adult research has shown that stress contributes to reward dysfunction, less is known about how stress impacts reward processing in youth. Towards addressing this gap, the present study probed neural activation associated with reward processing following an acute stressor. Healthy adolescents (n = 40) completed a clinical assessment, and fMRI data were acquired while participants completed a monetary guessing task under a no-stress condition and then under a stress condition. Based on prior literature, analyses focused on a priori defined regions-of-interest, specifically the striatum (win trials) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex [dACC] and insula (loss trials). Two main findings emerged. First, reward-related neural activation (i.e., striatum) was blunted in the stress relative to the no-stress condition. Second, the stress condition also contributed to blunted neural response following reward in loss-related regions (i.e., dACC, anterior insula); however, there were no changes in loss sensitivity. These results highlight the importance of conceptualizing neural vulnerability within the presence of stress, as this may clarify risk for mental disorders during a critical period of development.
改变的奖励处理是一种跨诊断因素，涉及广泛的精神障碍。虽然之前的动物和成人研究表明压力会导致奖励功能障碍，但对于压力如何影响年轻人的奖励处理知之甚少。为了弥补这一空白，本研究探讨了急性应激源后与奖励处理相关的神经激活。健康青少年（n = 40）完成了临床评估，并在参与者在无压力条件下和压力条件下完成货币猜测任务时采集 fMRI 数据。基于先前的文献，分析集中在预先定义的感兴趣区域，特别是纹状体（赢球试验）和背侧前扣带皮层[dACC]和岛叶（输球试验）。主要有两个发现。首先，与无压力条件相比，压力条件下的奖励相关神经激活（即纹状体）减弱。其次，压力条件也导致与损失相关区域（即 dACC、前岛叶）的奖励后神经反应迟钝；然而，损失敏感性没有变化。这些结果强调了在存在压力的情况下对神经脆弱性进行概念化的重要性，因为这可能会在发育的关键时期阐明精神障碍的风险。
