Neural activity and fundamental learning, motivated by monetary loss and reward, are intact in mild to moderate major depressive disorder.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Reduced motivation is an important symptom of major depression, thought to impair recovery by reducing opportunities for rewarding experiences. We characterized motivation for monetary outcomes in depressed outpatients (N = 39, 22 female) and controls (N = 22, 11 female) in terms of their effectiveness in seeking rewards and avoiding losses. We assessed motivational function during learning of associations between stimuli and actions, as well as when learning was complete. We compared the activity within neural circuits underpinning these behaviors between depressed patients and controls.

Methods

We used a Go/No-Go task that assessed subjects' abilities in learning to emit or withhold actions to obtain monetary rewards or avoid losses. We derived motivation-rele

SUBMITTER: Moutoussis M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6072018 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature