Relationship of prefrontal cortex activity with anhedonia and cognitive function in major depressive disorder: an fNIRS study
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1428425
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Summary
This study investigates the neurofunctional correlates of the interplay between cognitive function and hedonic experiences in medication-free patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Motivated by the clinical consensus that MDD involves deficits in both cognitive control and anhedonia, the researchers aimed to elucidate the role of prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity in this relationship. Specifically, the study sought to identify specific PFC regions associated with anhedonia and cognitive impairments, potentially serving as biomarkers for non-invasive neuromodulatory treatments. The study employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain activation in 56 MDD patients and 35 healthy controls (HCs). Participants performed a Verbal Fluency Task (VFT), a cognitive test requiring executive function and memory retrieval. Cognitive performance was assessed using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), focusing on sustained attention and working memory. Anhedonia was measured using the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (DARS), which evaluates four dimensions: desire, motivation, effort, and consummatory pleasure. fNIRS data were analyzed to determine relative changes in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration in the PFC during the VFT. Results indicated that MDD patients exhibited significant impairments in sustained attention and working memory, alongside lower total and subscale scores on the DARS compared to HCs. During the VFT, MDD patients showed reduced activation in the PFC, particularly in the dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) and Broca’s area. Correlation analyses revealed that DARS scores for motivation, desire, and total anhedonia, as well as sustained attention performance, were positively correlated with activation in the dlPFC and Broca’s area. Notably, lower motivation scores were associated with poorer sustained attention performance. The findings suggest that reduced PFC activity, specifically in the dlPFC and Broca’s area, is linked to both anhedonia and cognitive deficits in MDD. This supports the hypothesis that the PFC is a critical hub for integrating reward processing and cognitive control. The study concludes that changes in PFC oxygenated hemoglobin levels may serve as potential biomarkers for interventions targeting MDD. These results corroborate the view that the PFC is a primary target for non-invasive neuromodulatory treatments, offering insights into the pathophysiology of anhedonia and cognitive dysfunction in depression.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-nvidia | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 11 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified.
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