Abstract
Disturbances in feedback processing and a dysregulation of the neural circuit in which the cingulate cortex plays a key role have been frequently observed in depression. Since depression is a heterogeneous disease, instead of focusing on the depressive state in general, this study investigated the relations between the two core symptoms of depression, i.e., depressed mood and anhedonia, and the neural correlates of feedback processing using fMRI. The focus was on the different subdivisions of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Undergraduates with varying levels of depressed mood and anhedonia performed a time-estimation task in which they received positive and negative feedback that was either valid or invalid (i.e., related vs. unrelated to actual performance). The rostral cingulate zone (RCZ), corresponding to the dorsal part of the ACC, was less active in response to feedback in more anhedonic individuals, after correcting for the influence of depressed mood, whereas the subgenual ACC was more active in these individuals. Task performance was not affected by anhedonia, however. No statistically significant effects were found for depressed mood above and beyond the effects of anhedonia. This study therefore implies that increasing levels of anhedonia involve changes in the neural circuitry underlying feedback processing.
Highlights
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious mental illness, characterized by at least one of two core symptoms: depressed mood and anhedonia
In the present fMRI study, we aimed to identify a relationship between a dysregulated circuit in which the midcingulate cortex (MCC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) play a key role, reflected in aberrant feedback processing, and the two core symptoms of depression, depressed mood, and anhedonia
The current study investigated the relationship between the two core symptoms of depression, i.e., depressed mood and anhedonia, and behavioral and neural responses to valid and invalid positive and negative feedback
Summary
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious mental illness, characterized by at least one of two core symptoms: depressed mood and anhedonia (i.e., the loss of pleasure). Behavioral studies have shown that depressed individuals are hypersensitive to negative feedback When they make an error or receive negative feedback on their performance, their subsequent performance deteriorates (e.g., Beats et al, 1996; Elliott et al, 1997; Steffens et al, 2001). In addition to these aberrant behavioral responses, depressed patients have been found to show an increased electrophysiological response to negative feedback, reflected by the feedbackrelated negativity (FRN; Tucker et al, 2003; Santesso et al, 2008; Mies et al, 2011b), an event-related brain potential (ERP) component that occurs after receiving negative feedback (Miltner et al, 1997). The FRN is presumed to be generated in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Ridderinkhof et al, 2004)
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