Markers of positive affect and brain state synchrony discriminate melancholic from non-melancholic depression using naturalistic stimuli.

ABSTRACT: Melancholia has been proposed as a qualitatively distinct depressive subtype associated with a characteristic symptom profile (psychomotor retardation, profound anhedonia) and a better response to biological therapies. Existing work has suggested that individuals with melancholia are blunted in their display of positive emotions and differ in their neural response to emotionally evocative stimuli. Here, we unify these brain and behavioural findings amongst a carefully phenotyped group of seventy depressed participants, drawn from an established Australian database (the Australian Genetics of Depression Study) and further enriched for melancholia (high ratings of psychomotor retardation and anhedonia). Melancholic (n = 30) or non-melancholic status (n = 40) was defined using a semi-structur

SUBMITTER: Mosley PE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11835748 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature