title: Corticostriatal pathways contribute to the natural time course of positive mood.
abstract: The natural time course of mood includes both acute responses to stimuli and spontaneous fluctuations. To date, neuroimaging studies have focused on either acute affective responses or spontaneous neural fluctuations at rest but no prior study has concurrently probed both components, or how mood disorders might modulate these processes. Here, using fMRI, we capture the acute affective and neural responses to naturalistic positive mood induction, as well as their spontaneous fluctuations during resting states. In both healthy controls and individuals with a history of depression, our manipulation acutely elevates positive mood and ventral striatum activation. Only controls, however, sustain positive mood over time, and this effect is accompanied by the emergence of a reciprocal relationship between the ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex during ensuing rest. Findings suggest that corticostriatal pathways contribute to the natural time course of positive mood fluctuations, while disturbances of those neural interactions may characterize mood disorder.
authors.affiliation: McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, de Marneffe Building, Room 233A, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, Massachusetts 02478-9106, USA.
authors.forename: Roee
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Admon
authors.affiliation: McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, de Marneffe Building, Room 233A, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, Massachusetts 02478-9106, USA.
authors.forename: Diego A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Pizzagalli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D011859:Radiography; D055815:Young Adult