Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN
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J Psychiatry Neurosci · Nov 2015
Valence and agency influence striatal response to feedback in patients with major depressive disorder.
Reduced sensitivity to positive feedback is common in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, findings regarding negative feedback are ambiguous, with both exaggerated and blunted responses being reported. The ventral striatum (VS) plays a major role in processing valenced feedback, and previous imaging studies have shown that the locus of controls (self agency v. external agency) over the outcome influences VS response to feedback. We investigated whether attributing the outcome to one's own action or to an external agent influences feedback processing in patients with MDD. We hypothesized that depressed participants would be less sensitive to the feedback attribution reflected by an altered VS response to self-attributed gains and losses. ⋯ These results suggest an altered assignment of motivational salience to SA losses in patients with MDD. Altered striatal response to SA negative events may reinforce the belief of not being in control of negative outcomes contributing to a cycle of learned helplessness.
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J Psychiatry Neurosci · May 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialCatechol-O-methyltransferase val158met genotype determines effect of reboxetine on emotional memory in healthy male volunteers.
Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) metabolizes catecholamines in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). A common polymorphism in the COMT gene (COMT val158met) has pleiotropic effects on cognitive and emotional processing. The met allele has been associated with enhanced cognitive processing but impaired emotional processing relative to the val allele. ⋯ Emotional memory is impaired in healthy met homozygotes and selectively improved in this group by reboxetine. This has potential translational implications for the use of reboxetine, which is currently licensed as an antidepressant in several countries, and edivoxetine, a new selective NRI currently in development.
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J Psychiatry Neurosci · Mar 2014
Smaller stress-sensitive hippocampal subfields in women with borderline personality disorder without posttraumatic stress disorder.
Animal and human studies have suggested that hippocampal subfields are differentially vulnerable to stress, but subfield volume has not been investigated in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Based on the putative role of stressful life events as vulnerability factors for BPD, we hypothesized that patients with BPD would exhibit reduced volumes for the stress-sensitive dentate gyrus (DG) and the cornu ammonis (CA) 3 subfields volumes, and that these volumes would be associated with traumatic childhood experiences. ⋯ The volumes of stress-sensitive hippocampal subfields are reduced in women with BPD without PTSD. However, the degree to which childhood trauma is responsible for these changes is unclear.