Anhedonia modulates the effects of positive mood induction on reward-related brain activation
Open accessAbstract
Blunted activation in the reward circuitry has been associated with anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure in previously rewarding activities. In healthy individuals, reward-related activation has been found to be modulated by acute contextual factors such as induced positive mood. Accordingly, blunted reward response in anhedonia might involve a failure to appropriately modulate reward-related activation as a function of context. To test this hypothesis, 29 participants (19 females, mean age of 24.14 ± 4.61, age range 18-34), with a wide range of anhedonic symptoms, underwent functional MRI while anticipating and receiving monetary rewards, before and after a positive mood induction. Change in neural activation from before to after mood induction was quantified, and effects of anhedonia were investigated through whole-brain, ROI, and functional connectivity analyses. Contrary to hypotheses, results indicated that during reward anticipation (but not receipt), nucleus accumbens activation decreased while its connectivity with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex increased, following positive mood induction. Critically, anhedonia modulated both effects. The unexpected finding of decreased activation to reward cues following positive mood induction is compelling as it aligns with a prominent behavioral model of the effect of positive mood on exploration of rewarding and neutral stimuli. Furthermore, the modulation of this effect by anhedonia suggests that it may be a key process altered in anhedonia.
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Human prefrontal activity increases more for happy stimuli than for sad stimuli.
“Activity in the human PFC is increased by 'happy' stimuli to a greater extent than it is for 'sad' stimuli and these responses are altered in depressed and anhedonic patients [180-182], consistent with alterations in PFC circuit function.”
From Plasticity of synapses and reward circuit function in the genesis and treatment of depression (2023) · cites this paper as [182]
Prefrontal responses to happy and sad stimuli are altered in depressed and anhedonic patients.
“Activity in the human PFC is increased by 'happy' stimuli to a greater extent than it is for 'sad' stimuli and these responses are altered in depressed and anhedonic patients [180-182], consistent with alterations in PFC circuit function.”
From Plasticity of synapses and reward circuit function in the genesis and treatment of depression (2023) · cites this paper as [182]
These altered prefrontal responses are consistent with altered prefrontal circuit function.
“Activity in the human PFC is increased by 'happy' stimuli to a greater extent than it is for 'sad' stimuli and these responses are altered in depressed and anhedonic patients [180-182], consistent with alterations in PFC circuit function.”
From Plasticity of synapses and reward circuit function in the genesis and treatment of depression (2023) · cites this paper as [182]
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- Authors
- Green, I. W., Pizzagalli, D. A., Admon, R., & Kumar, P.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- University of Haifa (IL)
- Corresponding author
- Kumar, Poornima
- Venue
- NeuroImage
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-06
- Volume
- 193
- Pages
- 115-125
- ISSN
- 1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6813811
- OpenAlex
- W2919482664
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 1.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Harvard College Research Program
- Herchel Smith Undergraduate Science Research Program
- Harvard College Program for Research in Science and Engineering (R37 MH068376, R01 MH101521)
- Brain and Behavior Foundation (formerly NARSAD) Young Investigator award (R21 MH105775)
- NIH Shared Instrumentation (S10OD020039)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Keywords
- anhedonia, reward anticipation, reward processing, nucleus accumbens, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, functional connectivity
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Affect, Brain, Female, Humans, Male, Neural Pathways, Reward, Young Adult, Pleasure, Anhedonia
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