Neural reactivity to monetary gain and loss in depression and anxiety

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Neural reactivity to monetary gain and loss in depression and anxiety Danielle Mathersul1*, Ayelet M. Ruscio1, John D. Medaglia1, Haijing Wu1, Matthew J. Weber1 and Diego A. Pizzagalli2 1 University of Pennsylvania, United States 2 McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, United States Converging evidence from electrophysiological and neuroimaging research suggest that reduced reward responsiveness may be a potential biological marker of pathology and risk for depression. At the same time, there is evidence in support of a heightened sensitivity to threat (of danger or loss) as a core mechanism of anxiety. It is known that depression and anxiety have a strong shared genetic liability and co-occur far beyond chance, particularly major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), suggesting there may be common mechanisms for these psychopathologies. Direct comparison of MDD and GAD provides a particularly conservative test of processes that are shared and specific in anxiety and depression. The Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task assesses anticipation and consumption of monetary gain (reward) and loss (conceptualized as threat). The present study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore neural reactivity during the MID task in adults diagnosed with MDD (without GAD; N=16), GAD (without MDD; N=13), and healthy controls (with no history of psychopathology; N=13). Preliminary results revealed a similar pattern of neural responses in the clinical groups to both anticipation and consumption of reward. In contrast, the GAD-only group displayed reduced activity in striatal regions (nucleus accumbens, putamen, caudate), frontal regions (orbital, medial), anterior cingulate cortex, and insula during anticipation or consumption of threat, compared to the MDD-only group. These results suggest that blunted reward responsivity is a shared process and potential mechanism of comorbidity in MDD and GAD. The disorders diverge however in their neural reactivity to threat (loss). Implications for treatment intervention and theoretical conceptualisation of emotional disturbance will be discussed. Keywords: Depression, Anxiety, Reward, threat, fMRI, monetary incentive delay task Conference: ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Sydney, Australia, 2 Dec - 4 Dec, 2015. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Psychophysiology Citation: Mathersul D, Ruscio AM, Medaglia JD, Wu H, Weber MJ and Pizzagalli DA (2015). Neural reactivity to monetary gain and loss in depression and anxiety. Conference Abstract: ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.219.00042 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 24 Oct 2015; Published Online: 30 Nov 2015. * Correspondence: Dr. Danielle Mathersul, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States, danielle.mathersul@psych.upenn.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Danielle Mathersul Ayelet M Ruscio John D Medaglia Haijing Wu Matthew J Weber Diego A Pizzagalli Google Danielle Mathersul Ayelet M Ruscio John D Medaglia Haijing Wu Matthew J Weber Diego A Pizzagalli Google Scholar Danielle Mathersul Ayelet M Ruscio John D Medaglia Haijing Wu Matthew J Weber Diego A Pizzagalli PubMed Danielle Mathersul Ayelet M Ruscio John D Medaglia Haijing Wu Matthew J Weber Diego A Pizzagalli Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.