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Molecular Psychiatry Dec 2019Depression is a complex disorder that takes an enormous toll on individual health. As affected individuals display a wide variation in their clinical symptoms, the... (Review)
Review
Depression is a complex disorder that takes an enormous toll on individual health. As affected individuals display a wide variation in their clinical symptoms, the precise neural mechanisms underlying the development of depression remain elusive. Although it is impossible to phenocopy every symptom of human depression in rodents, the preclinical field has had great success in modeling some of the core affective and neurovegetative depressive symptoms, including social withdrawal, anhedonia, and weight loss. Adaptations in select cell populations may underlie these individual depressive symptoms and new tools have expanded our ability to monitor and manipulate specific cell types. This review outlines some of the most recent preclinical discoveries on the molecular and neurophysiological mechanisms in reward circuitry that underlie the expression of behavioral constructs relevant to depressive symptoms.
Topics: Anhedonia; Animals; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major; Disease Models, Animal; Humans; Motivation; Reward; Social Behavior; Weight Loss
PubMed: 30967681
DOI: 10.1038/s41380-019-0415-3 -
Neuropsychopharmacology : Official... Jan 2022The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has emerged as one of the regions most consistently impaired in major depressive disorder (MDD). Although functional and structural PFC... (Review)
Review
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has emerged as one of the regions most consistently impaired in major depressive disorder (MDD). Although functional and structural PFC abnormalities have been reported in both individuals with current MDD as well as those at increased vulnerability to MDD, this information has not translated into better treatment and prevention strategies. Here, we argue that dissecting depressive phenotypes into biologically more tractable dimensions - negative processing biases, anhedonia, despair-like behavior (learned helplessness) - affords unique opportunities for integrating clinical findings with mechanistic evidence emerging from preclinical models relevant to depression, and thereby promises to improve our understanding of MDD. To this end, we review and integrate clinical and preclinical literature pertinent to these core phenotypes, while emphasizing a systems-level approach, treatment effects, and whether specific PFC abnormalities are causes or consequences of MDD. In addition, we discuss several key issues linked to cross-species translation, including functional brain homology across species, the importance of dissecting neural pathways underlying specific functional domains that can be fruitfully probed across species, and the experimental approaches that best ensure translatability. Future directions and clinical implications of this burgeoning literature are discussed.
Topics: Anhedonia; Brain; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Prefrontal Cortex
PubMed: 34341498
DOI: 10.1038/s41386-021-01101-7 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Jun 2016The resurgence of interest in anhedonia within major depression has been fuelled by clinical trials demonstrating its utility in predicting antidepressant response as... (Review)
Review
The resurgence of interest in anhedonia within major depression has been fuelled by clinical trials demonstrating its utility in predicting antidepressant response as well as recent conceptualizations focused on the role and manifestation of anhedonia in depression. Historically, anhedonia has been understood as a "loss of pleasure", yet neuropsychological and neurobiological studies reveal a multifaceted reconceptualization that emphasizes different facets of hedonic function, including desire, effort/motivation, anticipation and consummatory pleasure. To ensure generalizability across studies, evaluation of the available subjective and objective methods to assess anhedonia is necessary. The majority of research regarding anhedonia and its neurobiological underpinnings comes from preclinical research, which uses primary reward (e.g. food) to probe hedonic responding. In contrast, behavioural studies in humans primarily use secondary reward (e.g. money) to measure many aspects of reward responding, including delay discounting, response bias, prediction error, probabilistic reversal learning, effort, anticipation and consummatory pleasure. The development of subjective scales to measure anhedonia has also increased in the last decade. This review will assess the current methodology to measure anhedonia, with a focus on scales and behavioural tasks in humans. Limitations of current work and recommendations for future studies are discussed.
Topics: Anhedonia; Depression; Humans; Motivation; Reward
PubMed: 26959336
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.03.004 -
The International Journal of... Feb 2019Pleasure and motivation are important factors for goal-directed behavior and well-being in both animals and humans. Intact hedonic capacity requires an undisturbed... (Review)
Review
Pleasure and motivation are important factors for goal-directed behavior and well-being in both animals and humans. Intact hedonic capacity requires an undisturbed interplay between a number of different brain regions and transmitter systems. Concordantly, dysfunction of networks encoding for reward have been shown in depression and other psychiatric disorders. The development of technological possibilities to investigate connectivity on a functional level in humans and to directly influence networks in animals using optogenetics among other techniques has provided new important insights in this field of research.In this review, we aim to provide an overview on the neurobiological substrates of anhedonia on a network level. For this purpose, definition of anhedonia and the involved reward components are described first, then current data on reward networks in healthy individuals and in depressed patients are summarized, and the roles of different neurotransmitter systems involved in reward processing are specified. Based on this information, the impact of different therapeutic approaches on reward processing is described with a particular focus on deep brain stimulation (DBS) as a possibility for a direct modulation of human brain structures in vivo.Overall, results of current studies emphasize the importance of anhedonia in psychiatric disorders and the relevance of targeting this phenotype for a successful psychiatric treatment. However, more data incorporating these results for the refinement of methodological approaches are needed to be able to develop individually tailored therapeutic concepts based on both clinical and neurobiological profiles of patients.
Topics: Anhedonia; Connectome; Depressive Disorder, Major; Humans; Nerve Net; Reward
PubMed: 30239748
DOI: 10.1093/ijnp/pyy081 -
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 2019Negative symptoms are frequent in patients with schizophrenia and are associated with marked impairments in social functioning. The efficacy of drug-based treatments and... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
BACKGROUND
Negative symptoms are frequent in patients with schizophrenia and are associated with marked impairments in social functioning. The efficacy of drug-based treatments and psychological interventions on primary negative symptoms remains limited. The Positive Emotions Programme for Schizophrenia (PEPS) is designed to improve pleasure and motivation in schizophrenia patients by targeting emotion regulation and cognitive skills relevant to apathy and anhedonia. The main hypothesis of this study is that patients who attend 8 one-hour sessions of PEPS and treatment as usual (TAU) will have lower total apathy-avolition and anhedonia-asociality composite scores on the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) than patients who attend only TAU.
METHODS
Eighty participants diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were randomized to receive either TAU or PEPS + TAU. The participants were assessed by independent evaluators before randomization (T0), in a post-test after 8 weeks of treatment (T1) and at a 6-month follow-up (T2).
RESULTS
The post-test results and 6-month follow-up assessments according to an intention-to-treat analysis showed that the apathy and anhedonia composite scores on the SANS indicated statistically greater clinical improvements in PEPS participants than in non-PEPS participants. In the post-test, anhedonia but not apathy was significantly improved, thus favouring the PEPS condition. These results were sustained at the 6-month follow-up.
CONCLUSIONS
PEPS is an effective intervention to reduce anhedonia in schizophrenia. PEPS is a short, easy-to-use, group-based, freely available intervention that is easy to implement in a variety of environments (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02593058).
Topics: Adult; Anhedonia; Apathy; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Female; Humans; Male; Motivation; Pleasure; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenic Psychology; Treatment Outcome
PubMed: 30783071
DOI: 10.1159/000496479 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Jul 2019Depression is linked to deficits in cognitive control and a host of other cognitive impairments arise as a consequence of these deficits. Despite of their important role... (Review)
Review
Depression is linked to deficits in cognitive control and a host of other cognitive impairments arise as a consequence of these deficits. Despite of their important role in depression, there are no mechanistic models of cognitive control deficits in depression. In this paper we propose how these deficits can emerge from the interaction between motivational and cognitive processes. We review depression-related impairments in key components of motivation along with new cognitive neuroscience models that focus on the role of motivation in the decision-making about cognitive control allocation. Based on this review we propose a unifying framework which connects motivational and cognitive control deficits in depression. This framework is rooted in computational models of cognitive control and offers a mechanistic understanding of cognitive control deficits in depression.
Topics: Anhedonia; Cognitive Dysfunction; Decision Making; Depressive Disorder; Executive Function; Humans; Models, Biological; Motivation; Reward
PubMed: 31047891
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.04.011 -
The American Journal of Psychiatry Jul 2022Anhedonia-the loss of pleasure or lack of reactivity to pleasurable stimuli-remains a formidable treatment challenge across neuropsychiatric disorders. In major... (Review)
Review
Anhedonia-the loss of pleasure or lack of reactivity to pleasurable stimuli-remains a formidable treatment challenge across neuropsychiatric disorders. In major depressive disorder, anhedonia has been linked to poor disease course, worse response to psychological, pharmacological, and neurostimulation treatments, and increased suicide risk. Moreover, although some neural abnormalities linked to anhedonia normalize after successful treatment, several persist-for example, blunted activation of the ventral striatum to reward-related cues and reduced functional connectivity involving the ventral striatum. Critically, some of these abnormalities have also been identified in unaffected, never-depressed children of parents with major depressive disorder and have been found to prospectively predict the first onset of major depression. Thus, neural abnormalities linked to anhedonia may be promising targets for prevention. Despite increased appreciation of the clinical importance of anhedonia and its underlying neural mechanisms, important gaps remain. In this overview, the author first summarizes the extant knowledge about the pathophysiology of anhedonia, which may provide a road map toward novel treatment and prevention strategies, and then highlights several priorities to facilitate clinically meaningful breakthroughs. These include a need for 1) appropriately controlled clinical trials, especially those embracing an experimental therapeutics approach to probe target engagement; 2) novel preclinical models relevant to anhedonia, with stronger translational value; and 3) clinical scales that incorporate neuroscientific advances in our understanding of anhedonia. The author concludes by highlighting important future directions, emphasizing the need for an integrated, collaborative, cross-species, and multilevel approach to tackling anhedonic phenotypes.
Topics: Anhedonia; Depressive Disorder, Major; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Reward; Ventral Striatum
PubMed: 35775159
DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.20220423 -
Nature Communications Aug 2023Chronic pain causes both physical suffering and comorbid mental symptoms such as anhedonia. However, the neural circuits and molecular mechanisms underlying these...
Chronic pain causes both physical suffering and comorbid mental symptoms such as anhedonia. However, the neural circuits and molecular mechanisms underlying these maladaptive behaviors remain elusive. Here using a mouse model, we report a pathway from vesicular glutamate transporter 3 neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus to dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VGluT3→DA) wherein population-level activity in response to innocuous mechanical stimuli and sucrose consumption is inhibited by chronic neuropathic pain. Mechanistically, neuropathic pain dampens VGluT3 → DA glutamatergic transmission and DA neural excitability. VGluT3 → DA activation alleviates neuropathic pain and comorbid anhedonia-like behavior (CAB) by releasing glutamate, which subsequently promotes DA release in the nucleus accumbens medial shell (NAcMed) and produces analgesic and anti-anhedonia effects via D2 and D1 receptors, respectively. In addition, VGluT3 → DA inhibition produces pain-like reflexive hypersensitivity and anhedonia-like behavior in intact mice. These findings reveal a crucial role for VGluT3 → DA → D2/D1 pathway in establishing and modulating chronic pain and CAB.
Topics: Humans; Ventral Tegmental Area; Chronic Pain; Dorsal Raphe Nucleus; Neuralgia; Anhedonia; Dopaminergic Neurons; Glutamic Acid
PubMed: 37612268
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40860-3 -
Immunity Feb 2021Microglia are activated in many neurological diseases and have been suggested to play an important role in the development of affective disorders including major...
Microglia are activated in many neurological diseases and have been suggested to play an important role in the development of affective disorders including major depression. To investigate how microglial signaling regulates mood, we used bidirectional chemogenetic manipulations of microglial activity in mice. Activation of microglia in the dorsal striatum induced local cytokine expression and a negative affective state characterized by anhedonia and aversion, whereas inactivation of microglia blocked aversion induced by systemic inflammation. Interleukin-6 signaling and cyclooxygenase-1 mediated prostaglandin synthesis in the microglia were critical for the inflammation-induced aversion. Correspondingly, microglial activation led to a prostaglandin-dependent reduction of the excitability of striatal neurons. These findings demonstrate a mechanism by which microglial activation causes negative affect through prostaglandin-dependent modulation of striatal neurons and indicate that interference with this mechanism could milden the depressive symptoms in somatic and psychiatric diseases involving microglial activation.
Topics: Anhedonia; Animals; Animals, Genetically Modified; Behavior, Animal; Cells, Cultured; Corpus Striatum; Depression; Disease Models, Animal; Humans; Inflammation; Interleukin-6; Macrophage Activation; Mice; Microglia; Neurogenic Inflammation; Neurons; Prostaglandins
PubMed: 33476547
DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2020.12.016 -
Nutrients Jul 2020Obesity is characterized by massive adipose tissue accumulation and is associated with psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairment in human and animal models....
Obesity is characterized by massive adipose tissue accumulation and is associated with psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairment in human and animal models. However, it is unclear whether high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity presents a risk of psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairment. To examine this question, we conducted systematic behavioral analyses in C57BL/6J mice (male, 8-week-old) fed an HFD for 7 weeks. C57BL/6J mice fed an HFD showed significantly increased body weight, hyperlocomotion in the open-field test (OFT) and Y-maze test (YMZT), and impaired sucrose preference in the sucrose consumption test, compared to mice fed a normal diet. Neither body weight nor body weight gain was associated with any of the behavioral traits we examined. Working memory, as assessed by the YMZT, and anxiety-like behavior, as assessed by the elevated plus maze test (EPMT), were significantly correlated with mice fed an HFD, although these behavioral traits did not affect the entire group. These results suggest that HFD-induced obesity does not induce neuropsychiatric symptoms in C57BL/6J mice. Rather, HFD improved working memory in C57BL/6J mice with less anxiety, indicating that an HFD might be beneficial under limited conditions. Correlation analysis of individual traits is a useful tool to determine those conditions.
Topics: Anhedonia; Animals; Anxiety; Behavior, Animal; Cognition; Diet, High-Fat; Elevated Plus Maze Test; Male; Maze Learning; Memory, Short-Term; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Motor Activity; Open Field Test; Weight Gain
PubMed: 32659954
DOI: 10.3390/nu12072036