title: Anhedonia and the brain reward circuitry in depression.
abstract: Anhedonia, or the loss of pleasure in previously rewarding stimuli, is a core symptom of major depressive disorder that may reflect an underlying dysregulation in reward processing. The mesolimbic dopamine circuit, also known as the brain's reward circuit, is integral to processing the rewarding salience of stimuli to guide actions. Manifestation of anhedonia and associated depression symptoms like feelings of sadness, changes in appetite, and psychomotor effects, may reflect changes in the brain reward circuitry as a common underlying disease process. This review will synthesize the recent literature from human and rodent studies providing a circuit-level framework for understanding anhedonia in depression, with emphasis on the nucleus accumbens.
authors.affiliation: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1425 Madison Avenue, Icahn 10-71, Box 1065, New York, NY 10029 (212) 659- 5917.
authors.forename: Mitra
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heshmati
authors.affiliation: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1425 Madison Avenue, Icahn 10-71, Box 1065, New York, NY 10029 (212) 659- 5917.
authors.forename: Scott J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Russo
keywords: anhedonia; chronic social defeat stress; depression; dopamine; medium spiny neuron; nucleus accumbens; optogenetics; reward circuitry