Social anhedonia in major depressive disorder: a symptom-specific neuroimaging approach

Abstract

While research concerning brain structural biomarkers of major depressive disorder (MDD) is continuously progressing, our state of knowledge regarding biomarkers of specific clinical profiles of MDD is still limited. The aim of the present study was to investigate brain structural correlates of social anhedonia as a cardinal symptom of MDD. In a cross-sectional study, we investigated n = 166 patients with MDD and n = 166 matched healthy controls (HC) using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Social anhedonia was assessed using the Chapman Scales for Social Anhedonia (SAS). An anhedonia x group ANCOVA was performed in a region of interest approach of the dorsal and ventral striatum (bilateral caudate nucleus, putamen, nucleus accumbens respectively) as well as on whole-brain level. The analyses revealed a significant main effect for social anhedonia: higher SAS-scores were associated with reduced gray matter volume in the bilateral caudate nucleus in both the MDD-group (p FWE = 0.002) and the HC-group (p FWE = 0.032). The whole-brain analysis confirmed this association (left: p FWE = 0.036, right: p FWE = 0.047). There was no significant main effect of group and no significant anhedonia x group interaction effect. This is the first study providing evidence for volumetric aberrations in the reward system related to social anhedonia independently of diagnosis, depression severity, medication status, and former course of disease. These results support the hypothesis that social anhedonia has a brain biomarker serving as a possible endophenotype of depression and possibly providing an alternative approach for a more precise and effective treatment.

Habenular and striatal activity during performance feedback are differentially linked with state-like and trait-like aspects of tobacco use disorder

“…Unfortunately, we did not utilize a validated, multi-item self-report assessment of irritability to provide empirical support for a potential link between elevated habenula activity following negative feedback and higher levels of irritability Linking such brain alterations with a clinically-relevant construct, we observed that the higher an individual smoker's session-specific habenula activity was, the greater their state-level of tobacco craving was during that same scanning visit. Habenular structural and functional alterations have previously been linked with major depressive disorder [47,[74][75][76], a condition in which smokers are overrepresented [77] and in which social anhedonia has been regarded as an endophenotype [78,79]. Consistent with these prior observations, we observed that the higher an individual participant's session-specific habenula activity was, the greater their selfreported social anhedonia also was during that same scanning visit.…”

Disruption of the structural and functional connectivity of the frontoparietal network underlies symptomatic anxiety in late-life depression

“…The IC maps were then compared between groups on a voxelwise basis for statistical analysis using nonparametric permutation testing (5000 permutations), revealing group differences in network connectivity. To compare fMRI measures between two groups, a contrast matrix of network connectivity was constructed using general linear models (GLMs), with head motion parameters, age, sex, educational level, medication load, and the presence or absence of global signals as covariates ( p < 0.05, with false discovery rate [FDR] correction) [31] , [32] . We further analyzed functional connectivity in patients who took antidepressants and drug-naive patients separately ( Appendix Fig.…”

Microstructural changes in the reward system are associated with post-stroke depression

“…16 It consists of subcortical and fronto-cortical regions, 16 which are interconnected by white matter projections of the cingulum and medial forebrain bundle. Multiple neuroimaging studies have provided evidence for grey matter volume reductions in the reward system 20,21 and microstructural changes in the medial forebrain bundle 22,23 and the cingulum bundle 23,24 to be implicated in MDD.…”