The role of the nucleus accumbens and rostral anterior cingulate cortex in anhedonia: integration of resting EEG, fMRI, and volumetric techniques - PubMed (original) (raw)

The role of the nucleus accumbens and rostral anterior cingulate cortex in anhedonia: integration of resting EEG, fMRI, and volumetric techniques

Jan Wacker et al. Neuroimage. 2009.

Abstract

Anhedonia, the reduced propensity to experience pleasure, is a promising endophenotype and vulnerability factor for several psychiatric disorders, including depression and schizophrenia. In the present study, we used resting electroencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and volumetric analyses to probe putative associations between anhedonia and individual differences in key nodes of the brain's reward system in a non-clinical sample. We found that anhedonia, but not other symptoms of depression or anxiety, was correlated with reduced nucleus accumbens (NAcc) responses to rewards (gains in a monetary incentive delay task), reduced NAcc volume, and increased resting delta current density (i.e., decreased resting activity) in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), an area previously implicated in positive subjective experience. In addition, NAcc reward responses were inversely associated with rACC resting delta activity, supporting the hypothesis that delta might be lawfully related to activity within the brain's reward circuit. Taken together, these results help elucidate the neural basis of anhedonia and strengthen the argument for anhedonia as an endophenotype for depression.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

LORETA whole-brain analyses. Results of voxel-by-voxel correlations between the Anhedonic Depression scale of the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ AD) and log-transformed delta (1.5–6.0 Hz) current density. The statistical map is thresholded at p < .001 (uncorrected). The red area indicates the only cluster with significant positive correlations. The slices displayed run through the voxel with the maximal correlation (r = .534, N = 41, p = .0003; MNI coordinates: 4, 38, 1). The circle and the triangles in the sagittal slice represent projections of peak activations from prior fMRI studies (_x_-coordinates for all peaks within ± 7). The yellow circle represents the area where two prior studies independently observed a significant positive correlation between anhedonia and the BOLD response to positive stimuli (Harvey et al., 2007; Keedwell et al., 2005). The triangles represent areas in which correlations between ratings of subjective pleasantness and the BOLD response to odors (green triangle, Rolls et al., 2003), tastes (light blue triangle, Grabenhorst et al., 2008), water in fluid-deprived subjects (dark blue triangle, de Araujo et al., 2003), as well as warm and cold stimuli applied to the hand (orange triangle, Rolls et al., 2008) have been described.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Mean beta weights (and standard errors) in (A) the four basal ganglia regions and (B) the rACC in response to monetary gains, no-change feedback, and monetary penalties (averaged across hemispheres). Note that only the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) showed a trend for smaller responses to penalties relative to no-change feedback.

Figure 3

Figure 3

Scatterplots for the correlations (A) between the Anhedonic Depression scale of the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ AD) and the NAcc response to monetary gains, (B) between MASQ AD and NAcc volume corrected for gender and intracranial volume (see text for details), (C) between MASQ AD and log-transformed resting delta (1.5–6.0 Hz)

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