Trial reportThe American journal of psychiatry2017
Dopaminergic Enhancement of Striatal Response to Reward in Major Depression.
Trial report in The American journal of psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01253421 (The Effects of Dopamine on Reward Processing), which is not on this map. Cited by 73 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
The Effects of Dopamine on Reward Processing
Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 135 citations in OpenAlex.
- Examining the relationship between pre-treatment anhedonia and treatment outcomes in individuals with anxiety or depression: A systematic review.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Identification of common spontaneous brain activity alterations across psychiatric disorders.Translational psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Alterations in resting-state brain activity patterns following antidepressant treatment: insights from a coordinate-based meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Differential Associations of Dopamine and Serotonin With Reward and Punishment Processes in Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JAMA psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Characterizing anhedonia: A systematic review of neuroimaging across the subtypes of reward processing deficits in depression.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2020Pooled it
- HMGB1 involved in stress-induced depression and its neuroinflammatory priming role: a systematic review.General psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Reward Processing in Depression: A Conceptual and Meta-Analytic Review Across fMRI and EEG Studies.The American journal of psychiatry · 2018Pooled it
- Investigating the effect of increased dopamine signaling on cerebral blood flow in Major Depressive Disorder: a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Trial
- Reduced anhedonia following internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression is mediated by enhanced reward circuit activation.Psychological medicine · 2023Trial
- Angiotensin blockade enhances motivational reward learning via enhancing striatal prediction error signaling and frontostriatal communication.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Trial
- Changes in neural reward processing following Amplification of Positivity treatment for depression and anxiety: Preliminary findings from a randomized waitlist controlled trial.Behaviour research and therapy · 2021Trial
- The effect of risperidone on reward-related brain activity is robust to drug-induced vascular changes.Human brain mapping · 2021Trial
- The acute effects of nicotine on corticostriatal responses to distinct phases of reward processing.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Machine Learning Identifies Large-Scale Reward-Related Activity Modulated by Dopaminergic Enhancement in Major Depression.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2020Trial
- Bupropion increases activation in nucleus accumbens during anticipation of monetary reward.Psychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Modulation of anterior cingulate cortex reward and penalty signalling in medication-naive young-adult subjects with depressive symptoms following acute dose lurasidone.Psychological medicine · 2019Trial
- Reproducible human reward imaging phenotypes exhibit differential sensitivity to dopamine D2 receptor antagonism.Nature communications · 2026Article
- ENX-104: a selective and potent DNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Neural and psychosocial signatures of the comorbidity between pain and affective symptoms.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Links Between Altered Feedback Learning and Symptoms of Depression: Insights From the FRN and Feedback-Locked N170.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveMajor depressive disorder is characterized by reduced reward-related striatal activation and dysfunctional reward learning, putatively reflecting decreased dopaminergic signaling. The goal of this study was to test whether a pharmacological challenge designed to facilitate dopaminergic transmission can enhance striatal responses to reward and improve reward learning in depressed individuals.
methodIn a double-blind placebo-controlled design, 46 unmedicated depressed participants and 43 healthy control participants were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or a single low dose (50 mg) of the D
resultsDepressed participants selected previously rewarded stimuli less frequently than did control participants, indicating reduced reward learning, but this effect was not modulated by amisulpride. Relative to depressed participants receiving placebo (and control participants receiving amisulpride), depressed participants receiving amisulpride exhibited increased striatal activation and potentiated corticostriatal functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and the midcingulate cortex in response to monetary rewards. Stronger corticostriatal connectivity in response to rewards predicted better reward learning among depressed individuals receiving amisulpride as well as among control participants receiving placebo.
conclusionsAcute enhancement of dopaminergic transmission potentiated reward-related striatal activation and corticostriatal functional connectivity in depressed individuals but had no behavioral effects. Taken together, the results suggest that targeted pharmacological treatments may normalize neural correlates of reward processing in depression; despite such acute effects on neural function, behavioral modification may require more chronic exposure. This is consistent with previous reports that antidepressant effects of amisulpride in depression emerged after sustained administration.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.