Key result
Major depressive disorder correlates with decreased nucleus accumbens functional connectivity to prefrontal and parietal regions.
Why the study?
The relationship between the functional connectivity of nucleus accumbens subregions and anhedonia in major depressive disorder patients remains unclear.
Cross-Sectional (n=51)
In patients with major depressive disorder, the neural correlates of anhedonia indicated by the resting-state functional connectivity of the nucleus accumbens subregions are modulated by depression in a regionally-dependent manner.
These connectivity changes may reflect anhedonia mechanisms; case-control design leaves open causality and clinical relevance.
BACKGROUND: The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is an important region in reward circuit that has been linked with anhedonia, which is a characteristic symptom of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the relationship between the functional connectivity of the NAc subregions and anhedonia in MDD patients remains unclear. METHODS: We acquired resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans from fifty-one subjects (23 MDD patients and 28 healthy controls). We assessed subjects' trait anhedonia with the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS). Seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) was conducted for each of the NAc subregions (bilateral core-like and shell-like subdivisions) separately to identify regions whose rsFCs with the NAc subregions were altered in the MDD patients and regions whose rsFCs with the NAc subregions showed different correlates with anhedonia between the MDD patients and the healthy controls. RESULTS: Compared with the health controls, the MDD patients showed decreased rsFCs of the right NAc core-like subdivision with the left mid-anterior orbital prefrontal cortex and the right inferior parietal lobe as well as decreased rsFC of the left NAc core-like subdivision with the right middle frontal gyrus. Moreover, the severity of anhedonia by the group interaction was significant for the rsFC of the right NAc shell-like subdivision with the subgenual/pregenual anterior cingulate cortex and the rsFC of the right NAc core-like subdivision with the precuneus. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the neural correlates of anhedonia indicated by the rsFCs of the NAc subregions were modulated by depression. The modulation effect was regionally-dependent. These findings enrich our understanding of the neural basis of anhedonia in MDD.
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Liu et al. (2021) conducted a cross-sectional in Major depressive disorder (n=51). Major depressive disorder vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) subregions and its correlation with anhedonia. Major depressive disorder was associated with decreased resting-state functional connectivity of the nucleus accumbens core-like subdivisions with prefrontal and parietal regions.
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