SoCAT Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University Hospital, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany.
SoCAT Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; Hulusi Behcet Life Sciences Research Laboratory, Neuroimaging Unit, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
J Affect Disord. 2024 Apr 15;351:184-193. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.247. Epub 2024 Jan 28.
Existing research indicates that individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) exhibit a bias toward salient negative stimuli. However, the impact of such biased stimuli on concurrent cognitive and affective processes in individuals with depression remains inadequately understood. This study aimed to investigate the effects of salient environmental stimuli, specifically emotional faces, on reward-associated processes in MDD.
Thirty-three patients with recurrent MDD and thirty-two healthy controls (HC) matched for age, sex, and education were included in the study. We used a reward-related associative learning (RRAL) task primed with emotional (happy, sad, neutral) faces to investigate the effect of salient stimuli on reward-related learning and decision-making in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were instructed to ignore emotional faces during the task. The fMRI data were analyzed using a full-factorial general linear model (GLM) in Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM12).
In depressed patients, cues primed with sad faces were associated with reduced amygdala activation. However, both HC and MDD group exhibited reduced ventral striatal activity while learning reward-related cues and receiving rewards.
The patients'medication usage was not standardized.
This study underscores the functional alteration of the amygdala in response to cognitive tasks presented with negative emotionally salient stimuli in the environment of MDD patients. The observed alterations in amygdala activity suggest potential interconnected effects with other regions of the prefrontal cortex. Understanding the intricate neural connections and their disruptions in depression is crucial for unraveling the complex pathophysiology of the disorder.
现有研究表明，患有重度抑郁症（MDD）的个体对显著的负面刺激存在偏见。然而，这种有偏差的刺激对抑郁症患者的并发认知和情感过程的影响仍未得到充分理解。本研究旨在探讨显著环境刺激，特别是情绪面孔，对 MDD 中与奖励相关的过程的影响。
研究纳入了 33 名复发性 MDD 患者和 32 名年龄、性别和教育程度相匹配的健康对照者（HC）。我们使用与情绪（快乐、悲伤、中性）面孔相关的奖励相关联想学习（RRAL）任务来研究显著刺激对功能磁共振成像（fMRI）中与奖励相关的学习和决策的影响。在任务过程中，参与者被指示忽略情绪面孔。使用统计参数映射（SPM12）中的全因子广义线性模型（GLM）对 fMRI 数据进行分析。
在抑郁患者中，悲伤面孔提示与杏仁核激活减少有关。然而，HC 和 MDD 组在学习与奖励相关的线索和接受奖励时，均表现出腹侧纹状体活动减少。
患者的用药情况未标准化。
本研究强调了 MDD 患者环境中认知任务呈现负性显著刺激时，杏仁核功能的改变。观察到的杏仁核活动改变提示与前额叶皮层的其他区域存在潜在的相互影响。了解抑郁症中复杂的神经连接及其中断对于揭示该疾病的复杂病理生理学至关重要。
