Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2021 Nov;238(11):3239-3247. doi: 10.1007/s00213-021-05940-6. Epub 2021 Jul 30.
Stress is a well-known risk factor for anhedonia, and its impacts on social reward functions may be mitigated by its controllability. Moreover, there are questions about the effectiveness of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on improving social hedonic functioning deficits characteristic of major depression.
The current study in male Sprague-Dawley rats investigated the effects of uncontrollable stress on responses to social incentive stimuli and possible modulation by the SSRI escitalopram (ESC).
The effects of inescapable foot-shocks on preferential responses to a conspecific, and to a compartment that was previously paired with the presence of a conspecific, were assessed in a Y-apparatus in rats that received 0, 5, or 10 mg/kg ESC.
Although inescapable foot-shock exposure did not significantly alter the investigation of the conspecific, it did impair the response to the social-paired compartment and, importantly, this impairment was reversed by ESC.
These results indicate that psychophysical stress can negatively impact reactivity to learned social rewards and that SSRI administration can have positive therapeutic effects.
压力是快感缺失的一个众所周知的风险因素，其对社会奖励功能的影响可能因可控制性而减轻。此外，关于选择性 5-羟色胺再摄取抑制剂（SSRIs）是否能有效改善重度抑郁症的社会愉悦功能缺陷仍存在疑问。
本研究在雄性 Sprague-Dawley 大鼠中探讨了不可控压力对社交激励刺激反应的影响，以及 SSRIs 依他普仑（ESC）的可能调节作用。
在 Y 型装置中，评估了 ESC（0、5 或 10mg/kg）给药大鼠不可逃避的足部电击对同种异体偏好反应以及之前与同种异体存在配对的隔室的偏好反应的影响。
尽管不可逃避的足部电击暴露并没有显著改变对同种异体的调查，但它确实损害了对社交配对隔室的反应，重要的是，ESC 逆转了这种损害。
这些结果表明，心理生理性应激会对学习的社会奖励反应产生负面影响，而 SSRI 给药可能具有积极的治疗效果。
