Reward and loss anticipation in panic disorder: An fMRI study. (30th January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Held-Poschardt, Dada; Sterzer, Philipp; Schlagenhauf, Florian; Pehrs, Corinna; Wittmann, Andre; Stoy, Meline; Hägele, Claudia; Knutson, Brian; Heinz, Andreas; Ströhle, Andreas
• Is Part Of: Psychiatry research. Volume 271(2018)
• Page Start: 111
• Page End: 117
• Publication Date: 2018-01-30
• Subjects: Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Brain -- Imaging -- Periodicals; Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Diagnostic Imaging -- Periodicals; Psychiatrie -- Périodiques; Cerveau -- Imagerie pour le diagnostic -- Périodiques; 616.890754
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2017.11.005
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0925-4927

Abstract

Abstract: Anticipatory anxiety and harm avoidance are essential features of panic disorder (PD) and may involve deficits in the reward system of the brain, in particular in the ventral striatum. While neuroimaging studies on PD have focused on fearful and negative affective stimulus processing, no investigations have directly addressed deficits in reward and loss anticipation. To determine whether the ventral striatum shows abnormal neural activity in PD patients during anticipation of loss or gain, an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment using a monetary incentive delay task was employed in 10 patients with PD and 10 healthy controls. A repeated-measures ANOVA to identify effects of group (PD vs. Control) and condition (anticipation of loss vs. gain vs. neutral outcome) revealed that patients with PD showed significantly reduced bilateral ventral striatal activation during reward anticipation but increased activity during loss anticipation. Within the patient group, the degree of activation in the ventral striatum during loss-anticipation was positively correlated with harm avoidance and negatively correlated with novelty seeking. These findings suggest that behavioural impairments in panic disorder may be related to abnormal neural processing of motivational cues. Highlights: Panic disorder (PD) is characterized by increased avoidance of aversive events. Ventral striatal (VS) activity is increased during anticipation of loss in PD. During anticipation of gain, by contrast, activity in the VS is reduced. This is associated with stronger harm avoidance and decreased novelty seeking. Our results provide evidence for aberrant processing of motivational cues in PD.