Description:

The Northwestern University Colloquium Series Presents:

Deanna Barch

Washington University in St. Louis

"Mechanisms of Motivational Impairments in Psychosis and Depression"

Abstract: The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative has recognized the importance
of studying motivation and hedonic processing in psychopathology and includes
a “positive valence” systems domain. This talk will review behavioral and
neuroimaging studies examining impairments in these constructs in individuals
with psychosis versus depressive pathology, as there appear to be important
differences patterns and neural alterations associated with reward and hedonic
function in psychosis versus depression. In depressive pathology, impairments in
the experience of pleasure may propagate forward and lead to impairments in other
aspects of the positive valence system that are reliant on hedonic responses, such
as anticipation, learning, effort, and action selection. Such pleasure impairments
could reflect disruption in dopamine and/or opioid signaling in the striatum
related to depression more generally, or more specifically to anhedonia symptoms. The existing data indicate relatively intact in-the-moment pleasure experience in psychosis, but disruptions in other components involved in the positive valence system. Specifically individuals with schizophrenia exhibit altered reward prediction and associated striatal and prefrontal activation, impaired reward learning, and impaired reward-modulated action selection, which may combine together to disrupt goal-directed behavior and function in everyday life.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

4:00 pm, Swift Hall 107

Reception to follow