SynthesisBehavioural brain research2023
Social reward processing in depressed and healthy individuals across the lifespan: A systematic review and a preliminary coordinate-based meta-analysis of fMRI studies.
Synthesis in Behavioural brain research, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effect of ketamine on reward processing in depressive disorders: a systematic review of neuroimaging studies.CNS spectrums · 2026Pooled it
- The effects of virtual reality technology on negative emotions in the elderly: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- The effectiveness and neurobiological actions of memory bias modification: a randomized controlled trial.Psychological medicine · 2025Trial
- Review
- Reward Motivation Adaptation Deficits Are Specific to Co-Occurring Subclinical Depression and Anhedonia.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Pathways to anhedonia in unmedicated major depressive disorder: the roles of insecure attachment and emotion dysregulation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Deficit in attentional capture by social-value related conditioned stimuli - a new perspective to understand the social-reward learning disorders among individuals with depressive symptoms.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The effectiveness of a multi-dimensional intervention model combining cognitive behavioral therapy and social support in hospitalized depressed patients.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Polygenic Risks for Depression and Neural Responses to Reward and Punishment in Young Adults.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Article
- A Meta-Analysis of Task-Based fMRI Studies on Alcohol Use Disorder.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Investigation of Hot and Cool Executive Functions in Reward and Competition.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Personalized neural responses to self and filial reward: Functional and structural responses to motivational cues.AIMS neuroscience · 2025Article
- Childhood unpredictability is associated with increased risk for long- and short-term depression and anhedonia symptoms following combat deployment.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2024Article
- Association between loneliness and cognitive function, and brain volume in community-dwelling elderly.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2024Article
- Increased functional connectivity between brain regions involved in social cognition, emotion and affective-value in psychedelic states induced by N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT).Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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7 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundSocial rewards (e.g., social feedback, praise, and social interactions) are fundamental to social learning and relationships across the life span. Exposure to social rewards is linked to activation in key brain regions, that are impaired in major depression. This is the first summary of neuroimaging literature on social reward processing in depressed and healthy individuals.
methodWe screened 409 studies and identified 25 investigating task-based fMRI activation during exposure to social stimuli in depressed and healthy populations across the lifespan. We conducted a systematic review followed by an Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) analysis of three main contrasts: a) positive social feedback vs. neutral stimuli; b) negative social feedback vs. neutral stimuli; c) positive vs. negative social feedback. We also compared activation patterns in depressed versus healthy controls.
resultsSystematic review revealed that social rewards elicit increased activation in subcortical reward regions (NAcc, amygdala, ventral striatum, thalamus) in healthy and depressed individuals; and decreased activation in prefrontal reward regions (medial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex) among depressed persons. Our meta-analysis showed, in both depressed and healthy individuals, increased cluster activation of the putamen and caudate in response to negative social stimuli vs. positive stimuli. We also found increased cluster activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the medial frontal gyrus (MFG) in healthy controls vs. depressed individuals, in response to negative social stimuli.
conclusionsProcessing of social stimuli elicits activation of key brain regions involved in affective and social information processing. Interventions for depression can increase social reward responsivity to improve outcomes.
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