Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26858994›Full record

ArticleBiological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging2016

Blunted neural responses to reward in remitted major depression: A high-density event-related potential study.

Alexis E Whitton, Pragya Kakani, Dan Foti, Ashlee Van't Veer, Anja Haile, David J Crowley, Diego A Pizzagalli

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
61citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.3field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

61 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 124 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  11. Reverse Translation.Perspectives on behavior science · 2026
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  12. Fatigue Symptoms Influence Effort-Based Decision-Making in Major Depressive Disorder.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025
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  13. Article
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  17. Computational Phenotyping of Effort-Based Decision Making in Unmedicated Adults With Remitted Depression.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025
    Article
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1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Alexis E WhittonMcLean Hospital & Harvard Medical School.
Pragya KakaniMcLean Hospital & Harvard Medical School.
Dan FotiPurdue University.
Ashlee Van't VeerMcLean Hospital & Harvard Medical School.
Anja HaileMcLean Hospital & Harvard Medical School.
David J CrowleyMcLean Hospital & Harvard Medical School.
Diego A PizzagalliMcLean Hospital & Harvard Medical School.
Harvard University · USPurdue University West Lafayette · US

Funding

Early Life Stress and Depression: Molecular and Functional Imaging ApproachesR01MH095809 · NIMH · MCLEAN HOSPITAL · PI DU, FEI, PIZZAGALLI, DIEGO A · 2012 to 2024
$6.4M
Neuroimaging Studies of Reward Processing in DepressionR01MH068376 · NIMH · MCLEAN HOSPITAL · PI PIZZAGALLI, DIEGO A · 2004 to 2014
$4.5M
Multi level Analysis of Positive Valence Systems Across Mood DisordersR01MH101521 · NIMH · MCLEAN HOSPITAL · PI PIZZAGALLI, DIEGO A · 2013 to 2016
$2.1M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH068376NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH095809NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH101521
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMajor depressive disorder (MDD) is a highly recurrent condition, and improving our understanding of the abnormalities that persist in remitted MDD (rMDD) may provide insight into mechanisms that contribute to relapse. MDD has been characterized by reward learning deficits linked to dysfunction in frontostriatal regions. Although initial behavioral evidence of reward learning deficits in rMDD has recently emerged, it is unclear whether these reflect impairments in neural reward processing that persist into remission.

methodsWe examined behavioral reward learning and 128-channel event-related potentials (ERP) during a well-validated probabilistic reward task in 26 rMDD individuals and 34 never-depressed controls. Temporo-spatial principal components analysis (PCA) was used to separate overlapping ERP components, and group differences in neural activity in

resultsIndividuals with rMDD displayed reduced behavioral reward learning, as well as blunted ERP amplitude to reward feedback. Importantly, the reduction in ERP amplitude occurred at a PCA factor that peaked during the time at which phasic reward feedback-related signaling - hypothesized to originate in the striatum and project to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) - are thought to modulate scalp-recorded activity. Consistent with this, LORETA analyses revealed reduced activity in the ACC in the rMDD group, and this blunting correlated with poorer reward learning.

conclusionThese findings suggest that the reward learning impairment observed in acute MDD persists into full remission and that these impairments may be attributable to abnormalities in the neural processes that support reward feedback monitoring, particularly within the ACC.

Indexed as

anhedoniaanterior cingulateERPfeedback-related negativitymajor depressionreward learning

Identifiers

PMID26858994
PMCPMC4743048
OpenAlexW2230096011

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.