The fMRI study of reward system in the patient with major depressive disorder: Is the disturbance of the system a biological marker of treatment-resistant depression ?

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25860981
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Psychiatric science
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: HASHIMOTO Naoki 北海道大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 客員研究員 (40615895)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: うつ病 / functional MRI / 報酬系 / 報酬予測課題 / 難治性うつ病 / ドパミン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We scanned eleven normal subjects and eleven patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) using 1.5T MRI. In this analysis, the activation of the ventral striatum at high reward condition in MDD patients was significantly lower than that in normal control. We did not find any significant relationship between activity of ventral striatum and stress events nor temperament. After exchange of MRI scanner, we scanned 81 normal control subjects and find a significant higher activation at high reward condition in ventral striatum comparing to activation at no reward condition. Furthermore, we find (1) no smoking history, (2)higher TEMPS_anxiety, and (3) lower TEMPS_cyclothymic predict higher activation of ventral striatum. Now we are increasing a number of the subjects of patients with major depression and examining the relation ship between ventral striatum activation and treatment-resistant depression.

Free Research Field

認知神経科学