ReviewMolecular psychiatry2022
Deep brain stimulation of the "medial forebrain bundle": a strategy to modulate the reward system and manage treatment-resistant depression.
Review in Molecular psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Deep brain stimulation normalizes amygdala responsivity in treatment-resistant depression.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Trial
- Deep brain stimulation mechanisms in comorbid pain and emotional dysregulation from animal models.iScience · 2026Review
- Three-Dimensional Point-Cloud Learning for Patient-Specific Deep Brain Stimulation Motor Response Prediction in Parkinson Disease.BME frontiers · 2026Article
- Fiber Distribution and Myelination of Dopaminergic Neurons in the Medial Forebrain Bundle of a Rodent Depression Model.Journal of neuroscience research · 2025Article
- Effects of deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens and anterior limb of the internal capsule on heroin addiction: Over five years of long-term follow-up in a prospective open-label pilot study.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Anhedonia as a Core Symptom of Depression and a Construct for Biological Research.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2025Article
- Acute and chronic gene expression activation following medial forebrain bundle DBS and selective dopamine pathway stimulation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Chronic in vivo sequelae of repetitive acute mfb-DBS on accumbal dopamine and midbrain neuronal activity.Journal of neurochemistry · 2025Article
- Establishing connectivity through microdissections of midbrain stimulation-related neural circuits.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Linking connectivity of deep brain stimulation of nucleus accumbens area with clinical depression improvements: a retrospective longitudinal case series.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2024Article
- Opportunities and challenges for the use of deep brain stimulation in the treatment of refractory major depression.Discover mental health · 2024Review
- Development of a multivariate prediction model for antidepressant resistant depression using reward-related predictors.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Closed-loop neurostimulation for the treatment of psychiatric disorders.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Review
- Anatomical characterisation of three different psychosurgical targets in the subthalamic area: from the basal ganglia to the limbic system.Brain structure & function · 2023Article
- A mesocorticolimbic signature of pleasure in the human brain.Nature human behaviour · 2023Article
- Structural and functional correlates of the response to deep brain stimulation at ventral capsule/ventral striatum region for treatment-resistant depression.Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry · 2023Article
- Predictive neuromodulation of cingulo-frontal neural dynamics in major depressive disorder using a brain-computer interface system: A simulation study.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2023Article
- Deep brain stimulation, lesioning, focused ultrasound: update on utility.AIMS neuroscience · 2023Review
- Dopamine and Beyond: Implications of Psychophysical Studies of Intracranial Self-Stimulation for the Treatment of Depression.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- "The Heart Asks Pleasure First"-Conceptualizing Psychiatric Diseases asBrain sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The medial forebrain bundle-a white matter pathway projecting from the ventral tegmental area-is a structure that has been under a lot of scrutinies recently due to its implications in the modulation of certain affective disorders such as major depression. In the following, we will discuss major depression in the context of being a disorder dependent on multiple relevant networks, the pathological performance of which is responsible for the manifestation of various symptoms of the disease which extend into emotional, motivational, physiological, and also cognitive domains of daily living. We will focus on the reward system, an evolutionarily conserved pathway whose underperformance leads to anhedonia and lack of motivation, which are key traits in depression. In the field of deep brain stimulation (DBS), different "hypothesis-driven" targets have been chosen as the subject of clinical trials on efficacy in the treatment-resistant depressed patient. The "medial forebrain bundle" is one such target for DBS, and has had remarkably rapid success in alleviating depressive symptoms, improving anhedonia and motivation. We will review what we have learned from pre-clinical animal studies on defining this white matter tract, its connectivity, and the complex molecular (i.e., neurotransmitter) mechanisms by which its modulation exerts its effects. Imaging studies in the form of tractographic depictions have elucidated its presence in the human brain. Such has led to ongoing clinical trials of DBS targeting this pathway to assess efficacy, which is promising yet still lack in sufficient numbers. Ultimately, one must confirm the mechanism of action and validate proof of antidepressant effect in order to have such treatment become mainstream, to promote widespread improvement in the quality of life of suffering patients.
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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.