A psychophysiological investigation of threat and reward sensitivity in individuals with panic disorder and/or major depressive disorder.

Abstract

Heightened sensitivity to threat and reduced sensitivity to reward are potential mechanisms of dysfunction in anxiety and depressive disorders, respectively. However, few studies have simultaneously examined whether these mechanisms are unique or common to these disorders. In this study, sensitivity to predictable and unpredictable threat (measured by startle response during threat anticipation) and sensitivity to reward (measured by frontal electroencephalographic [EEG] asymmetry during reward anticipation) were assessed in 4 groups (N = 191): those with (1) panic disorder (PD) without a lifetime history of depression, (2) major depression (MDD) without a lifetime history of an anxiety disorder, (3) comorbid PD and MDD, and (4) controls. General distress/negative temperament (NT) was also assessed via self-report. Results indicated that PD (with or without comorbid MDD) was uniquely associated with heightened startle to predictable and unpredictable threat, and MDD (with or without comorbid PD) was uniquely associated with reduced frontal EEG asymmetry. Both psychophysiological measures of threat and reward sensitivity were stable on retest approximately 9 days later in a subsample of participants. Whereas the comorbid group did not respond differently on the tasks relative to the PD-only and MDD-only groups, they did report greater NT than these 2 groups (which did not differ from each other). Results suggest that heightened sensitivity to threat and reduced sensitivity to reward may be specific components of PD and MDD, respectively. In addition, relative to noncomorbid depression and PD, comorbid MDD and PD may be characterized by heightened NT, but not abnormal levels of these “specific” components.

Mechanisms Underlying Motivational Deficits in Psychopathology: Similarities and Differences in Depression and Schizophrenia

“…(Sherdell et al 2012). In addition, individuals with depression or with a family history of depression show reduced frontal EEG asymmetries during reward anticipation (Shankman et al 2007(Shankman et al , 2013Nelson et al 2013Nelson et al , 2014. Further, a recent meta-analysis on neural processing of rewards in depression found evidence for <reduced>?…”

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

“…The NPU task manipulates uncertainty regarding both IF (shock probability) and WHEN (shock timing) shocks will occur. The NPU task has been used to examine drug administration and deprivation effects on negative affective response 4,34 and etiological mechanisms in mood and anxiety disorders [22][23][24][41][42][43] . In other research, Curtin and colleagues have also developed variants of these cued threat tasks that precisely manipulate threat uncertainty about WHEN (shock timing) 5,29,44 ; WHERE (administration location on body for shock) 25 ; and HOW BAD (shock intensity) 7 .…”

Blunted cardiovascular reactivity during social reward anticipation in subclinical depression

“…The wealth of empirical studies strongly suggest that individuals with clinical and subclinical depression are impaired in their response to rewards both during the anticipatory (i.e., motivational) phase and during the consummatory (i.e., emotional) phase (for a detailed discussion about the distinction between these two phases, see Berridge and Robinson, 2003;Gard et al, 2006). Specifically, depressed individuals report less anticipated pleasure (e.g., Chentsova-Dutton and Hanley, 2010), show impaired reward-learning behavior (e.g., Huys et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2011;Vrieze et al, 2013), demonstrate impaired reward-related decision making (e.g., Kunisato et al, 2012;Treadway et al, 2012), have reduced activity in approach-related cortical regions (e.g., Shankman et al, 2013; for a review see Thibodeau et al, 2006), and show altered activity in reward-related brain regions (for a review see Zhang et al, 2013). Recently, we have shown reduced effort-related cardiovascular reactivity during goal pursuit in subclinical depression (Brinkmann and Franzen, 2013;Brinkmann et al, 2009;Brinkmann, 2015, 2016a).…”