Reward Versus Nonreward Sensitivity of the Medial Versus Lateral Orbitofrontal Cortex Relates to the Severity of Depressive Symptoms

Xie, Chao; Jia, Tianye; Rolls, Edmund T.; Robbins, Trevor W.; Sahakian, Barbara J.; Zhang, Jie; Liu, Zhaowen; Cheng, Wei; Luo, Qiang; Zac Lo, Chun-Yi; Wang, He; Banaschewski, Tobias; Barker, Gareth J.; Bokde, Arun L.W.; B?chel, Christian; Quinlan, Erin Burke; Desrivi?res, Sylvane; Flor, Herta; Grigis, Antoine; Garavan, Hugh; Gowland, Penny; Heinz, Andreas; Hohmann, Sarah; Ittermann, Bernd; Martinot, Jean-Luc; Paill?re Martinot, Marie-Laure; Nees, Frauke; Orfanos, Dimitri Papadopoulos; Paus, Tom?; Poustka, Luise; Fr?hner, Juliane H.; Smolka, Michael N.; Walter, Henrik; Whelan, Robert; Schumann, Gunter; Feng, Jianfeng; Artiges, Eric; Aydin, Semiha; Banaschewski, Tobias; Barbot, Alexis; Barker, Gareth; Becker, Andreas; Bezivin-Frere, Pauline; Biondo, Francesca; Bokde, Arun; B?chel, Christian; Chu, Congying; Conrod, Patricia; Daedelow, Laura; Dalley, Jeffrey; Desrivieres, Sylvane; Dooley, Eoin; Filippi, Irina; Fillmer, Ariane; Flor, Herta; Fr?hner, Juliane; Frouin, Vincent; Garavan, Hugh;...

Abstract

Background
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is implicated in depression. The hypothesis investigated was whether the OFC sensitivity to reward and nonreward is related to the severity of depressive symptoms.

Methods
Activations in the monetary incentive delay task were measured in the IMAGEN cohort at ages 14 years (n = 1877) and 19 years (n = 1140) with a longitudinal design. Clinically relevant subgroups were compared at ages 19 (high-severity group: n = 116; low-severity group: n = 206) and 14.

Results
The medial OFC exhibited graded activation increases to reward, and the lateral OFC had graded activation increases to nonreward. In this general population, the medial and lateral OFC activations were associated with concurrent depressive symptoms at both ages 14 and 19 years. In a stratified high-severity depressive symptom group versus control group comparison, the lateral OFC showed greater sensitivity for the magnitudes of activations related to nonreward in the high-severity group at age 19 (p = .027), and the medial OFC showed decreased sensitivity to the reward magnitudes in the high-severity group at both ages 14 (p = .002) and 19 (p = .002). In a longitudinal design, there was greater sensitivity to nonreward of the lateral OFC at age 14 for those who exhibited high depressive symptom severity later at age 19 (p = .003).

Conclusions
Activations in the lateral OFC relate to sensitivity to not winning, were associated with high depressive symptom scores, and at age 14 predicted the depressive symptoms at ages 16 and 19. Activations in the medial OFC were related to sensitivity to winning, and reduced reward sensitivity was associated with concurrent high depressive symptom scores.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 30, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Sep 10, 2020
• Publication Date: 2021-03
• Deposit Date: Jun 17, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 17, 2021
• Journal: Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging
• Print ISSN: 2451-9022
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 259-269
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.08.017
• Keywords: Cognitive Neuroscience; Biological Psychiatry; Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging; Clinical Neurology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5064746
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451902220302548?via%3Dihub