Publication Date
7-15-2024
Journal
Nature Communications
DOI
10.1038/s41467-024-49600-7
PMID
39009561
PMCID
PMC11250824
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
7-15-2024
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Published Open-Access
yes
Keywords
Humans, Reward, Gyrus Cinguli, Male, Adult, Female, Depressive Disorder, Major, Choice Behavior, Middle Aged, Beta Rhythm, Epilepsy, Young Adult, Reward, Psychiatric disorders, Cognitive neuroscience
Abstract
The rewards that we get from our choices and actions can have a major influence on our future behavior. Understanding how reward biasing of behavior is implemented in the brain is important for many reasons, including the fact that diminution in reward biasing is a hallmark of clinical depression. We hypothesized that reward biasing is mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a cortical hub region associated with the integration of reward and executive control and with the etiology of depression. To test this hypothesis, we recorded neural activity during a biased judgment task in patients undergoing intracranial monitoring for either epilepsy or major depressive disorder. We found that beta (12-30 Hz) oscillations in the ACC predicted both associated reward and the size of the choice bias, and also tracked reward receipt, thereby predicting bias on future trials. We found reduced magnitude of bias in depressed patients, in whom the beta-specific effects were correspondingly reduced. Our findings suggest that ACC beta oscillations may orchestrate the learning of reward information to guide adaptive choice, and, more broadly, suggest a potential biomarker for anhedonia and point to future development of interventions to enhance reward impact for therapeutic benefit.