Ventral Striatum Reactivity to Reward and Recent Life Stress Interact to Predict Positive Affect

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.03.014

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 72, Issue 2, 15 July 2012, Pages 157-163

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.03.014 Get rights and content

Background

Stressful life events are among the most reliable precipitants of major depressive disorder; yet, not everyone exposed to stress develops depression. It has been hypothesized that robust neural reactivity to reward and associated stable levels of positive affect (PA) may protect against major depressive disorder in the context of environmental adversity. However, little empirical data exist to confirm this postulation. Here, we test the hypothesis that individuals with relatively low ventral striatum (VS) reactivity to reward will show low PA levels in the context of recent life stress, while those with relatively high VS reactivity will be protected against these potentially depressogenic effects.

Methods

Differential VS reactivity to positive feedback was assessed using blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging in a sample of 200 nonpatient young adults. Recent life stress, current depressive symptoms, and PA were assessed via self-report. Linear regression models were used to investigate the moderating effects of VS reactivity on the relationship between recent stress and state PA across participants.

Results

Recent life stress interacted with VS reactivity to predict self-reported state PA, such that higher levels of life stress were associated with lower PA for participants with relatively low, but not for those with high, VS reactivity. These effects were independent of age, gender, race/ethnicity, trait PA, and early childhood trauma.

Conclusions

The current results provide empirical evidence for the potentially protective role of robust reward-related neural responsiveness against reductions in PA that may occur in the wake of life stress and possibly vulnerability to depression precipitated by stressful life events.

Section snippets

Participants

A total of 200 participants were included from the ongoing Duke Neurogenetics Study, which assesses a wide range of behavioral and biological traits among nonpatient, young adult, student volunteers. All participants provided informed consent in accordance with Duke University guidelines and were in good general health. Twenty-nine participants were excluded from analyses due to signal dropout in VS regions of interest (see below) and 1 participant did not have valid self-report data due to

Sample Demographics

There were no significant effects of gender or age on any self-report measure (Table 1). However, several trend-level effects emerged (Table 1). In addition, consistent with previous literature (36), men had higher right VS reactivity compared with women (p = .032). Finally, race/ethnicity had a significant effect on CES-D total and all CES-D subscales except interpersonal functioning (Table 2). To account for the potentially confounding effects of these demographic variables, all analyses were

Discussion

Consistent with theoretical predictions that robust responsiveness to reward may protect against the depressogenic effects of stress (12), we provide empirical evidence that recent life stress interacts with reward-related ventral striatum reactivity to predict self-reported state positive affect. Specifically, we show that recent life stress is associated with decreased PA only in individuals with relatively low VS reactivity. In those with relatively high VS reactivity, levels of PA did not

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Archival ReportVentral Striatum Reactivity to Reward and Recent Life Stress Interact to Predict Positive Affect

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Participants

Sample Demographics

Discussion

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry

Neurosci Biobehav Rev

Biol Psychiatry

Biol Psychiatry

Biol Psychiatry

Curr Opin Pharmacol

Neuroimage

Neuroimage

Neuropsychologia

Pers Individ Dif

Biol Psychiatry

Psychiatry Res

J Psychosom Res

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Neuroscience

Brain Res

Behav Res Ther

Social Origins of Depression

Chronic mild stress (CMS) revisited: Consistency and behavioural-neurobiological concordance in the effects of CMS

Neuropsychobiology

The effect of stress on hedonic capacity

J Abnorm Psychol

Blunted response to feedback information in depressive illness

Brain

Lack of ventral striatal response to positive stimuli in depressed versus normal subjects

Am J Psychiatry

Psychobiological mechanisms of resilience and vulnerability: Implications for successful adaptation to extreme stress

Am J Psychiatry

Psychobiology and molecular genetics of resilience

Nat Rev Neurosci

The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population

Appl Psychol Meas

Positive affect and the other side of coping

Am Psychol

Positive and negative affectivity and their relation to anxiety and depressive disorders

J Abnorm Psychol

Altered striatal activation predicting real-world positive affect in adolescent major depressive disorder

Am J Psychiatry

The reward circuit: Linking primate anatomy and human imaging

Neuropsychopharmacology

Archival Report
Ventral Striatum Reactivity to Reward and Recent Life Stress Interact to Predict Positive Affect