Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T07:17:24.903Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Abnormal brain responses to social fairness in depression: an fMRI study using the Ultimatum Game

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2014

V. B. Gradin ,
A. Pérez ,
J. A. MacFarlane ,
I. Cavin ,
G. Waiter ,
J. Engelmann ,
B. Dritschel ,
A. Pomi ,
K. Matthews  and
J. D. Steele
V. B. Gradin*
Affiliation:
CIBPsi, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay Division of Neuroscience, Medical Research Institute, University of Dundee, UK
A. Pérez
Affiliation:
CIBPsi, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
J. A. MacFarlane
Affiliation:
Medical Physics, NHS Tayside, University of Dundee, UK
I. Cavin
Affiliation:
Medical Physics, NHS Tayside, University of Dundee, UK
G. Waiter
Affiliation:
Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre, University of Aberdeen, UK
J. Engelmann
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland
B. Dritschel
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of St Andrews, UK
A. Pomi
Affiliation:
Biophysics Section, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
K. Matthews
Affiliation:
Division of Neuroscience, Medical Research Institute, University of Dundee, UK
J. D. Steele
Affiliation:
Division of Neuroscience, Medical Research Institute, University of Dundee, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr V. B. Gradin, Faculty of Psychology, Centre for Investigation of Basic Psychology (CIBPsi), Universidad de la República, Montevideo 11200, Uruguay. (Email: victoriagradin@gmail.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background.

Depression is a prevalent disorder that significantly affects the social functioning and interpersonal relationships of individuals. This highlights the need for investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying these social difficulties. Investigation of social exchanges has traditionally been challenging as such interactions are difficult to quantify. Recently, however, neuroeconomic approaches that combine multiplayer behavioural economic paradigms and neuroimaging have provided a framework to operationalize and quantify the study of social interactions and the associated neural substrates.

Method.

We investigated brain activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in unmedicated depressed participants (n = 25) and matched healthy controls (n = 25). During scanning, participants played a behavioural economic paradigm, the Ultimatum Game (UG). In this task, participants accept or reject monetary offers from other players.

Results.

In comparison to controls, depressed participants reported decreased levels of happiness in response to ‘fair’ offers. With increasing fairness of offers, controls activated the nucleus accumbens and the dorsal caudate, regions that have been reported to process social information and responses to rewards. By contrast, participants with depression failed to activate these regions with increasing fairness, with the lack of nucleus accumbens activation correlating with increased anhedonia symptoms. Depressed participants also showed a diminished response to increasing unfairness of offers in the medial occipital lobe.

Conclusions.

Our findings suggest that depressed individuals differ from healthy controls in the neural substrates involved with processing social information. In depression, the nucleus accumbens and dorsal caudate may underlie abnormalities in processing information linked to the fairness and rewarding aspects of other people's decisions.

Keywords

Depressionfunctional magnetic resonance imagingneuroeconomicssocial interactionsultimatum game.
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 45 , Issue 6 , April 2015 , pp. 1241 - 1251
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, AT (1979). Cognitive Theory of Depression. John Wiley & Sons: New York.Google Scholar
Beck, AT, Epstein, N, Harrison, RP, Emery, G (1983). Development of the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale: A Measure of Personality Factors in Psychopathology. University of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, PA.Google Scholar
Beck, AT, Ward, HC, Mendelson, M (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 4, 561–571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernstein, DP, Stein, JA, Newcomb, MD, Walker, E, Pogge, D, Ahluvalia, T, Stokes, J, Handelsman, L, Medrano, M, Desmond, D, Zule, W (2003). Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Child Abuse and Neglect 27, 169–190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Billings, AG, Cronkite, RC, Moos, RH (1983). Social-environmental factors in unipolar depression: comparisons of depressed patients and nondepressed controls. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 92, 119–133.Google Scholar
Bjorkquist, OA, Herbener, ES (2013). Social perception in schizophrenia: evidence of temporo-occipital and prefrontal dysfunction. Psychiatry Research 212, 175–182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brugha, T, Conroy, R, Walsh, N, Delaney, W, O'Hanlon, J, Dondero, E, Daly, L, Hickey, N, Bourke, G (1982). Social networks, attachments and support in minor affective disorders: a replication. British Journal of Psychiatry 141, 249–255.Google Scholar
Crockett, MJ, Apergis-Schoute, A, Herrmann, B, Lieberman, MD, Muller, U, Robbins, TW, Clark, L (2013). Serotonin modulates striatal responses to fairness and retaliation in humans. Journal of Neuroscience 33, 3505–3513.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crockett, MJ, Clark, L, Tabibnia, G, Lieberman, MD, Robbins, TW (2008). Serotonin modulates behavioral reactions to unfairness. Science 320, 1739.Google Scholar
Cusi, AM, Nazarov, A, Holshausen, K, Macqueen, GM, McKinnon, MC (2012). Systematic review of the neural basis of social cognition in patients with mood disorders. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 37, 154–169.Google Scholar
Delgado, MR, Miller, MM, Inati, S, Phelps, EA (2005). An fMRI study of reward-related probability learning. NeuroImage 24, 862–873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Destoop, M, Schrijvers, D, De Grave, C, Sabbe, B, De Bruijn, ER (2012). Better to give than to take? Interactive social decision-making in severe major depressive disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders 137, 98–105.Google Scholar
Disner, SG, Beevers, CG, Haigh, EA, Beck, AT (2011). Neural mechanisms of the cognitive model of depression. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 12, 467–477.Google Scholar
Eshel, N, Roiser, JP (2010). Reward and punishment processing in depression. Biological Psychiatry 68, 118–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fehr, E, Schmidt, KM (1999). A theory of fairness, competition, and cooperation. Quarterly Journal of Economics 114, 817–868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredman, L, Weissman, MM, Leaf, PJ, Bruce, ML (1988). Social functioning in community residents with depression and other psychiatric disorders: results of the New Haven Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study. Journal of Affective Disorders 15, 103–112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glimcher, PW, Rustichini, A (2004). Neuroeconomics: the consilience of brain and decision. Science 306, 447–452.Google Scholar
Gradin, VB, Kumar, P, Waiter, G, Ahearn, T, Stickle, C, Milders, M, Reid, I, Hall, J, Steele, JD (2011). Expected value and prediction error abnormalities in depression and schizophrenia. Brain 134, 1751–1764.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grecucci, A, Giorgetta, C, Brambilla, P, Zuanon, S, Perini, L, Balestrieri, M, Bonini, N, Sanfey, AG (2013). Anxious ultimatums: how anxiety disorders affect socioeconomic behaviour. Cognition and Emotion 27, 230–244.Google Scholar
Guth, W, Schmittberger, R, Schwarze, B (1982). An experimental analysis of ultimatum bargaining. Journal of Economical Behaviour 3, 367–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, M (1959). The assessment of anxiety states by rating. British Journal of Medical Psychology 32, 50–55.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M (1960). Rating scale for depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 23, 56–62.Google Scholar
Harle, KM, Allen, JJ, Sanfey, AG (2010). The impact of depression on social economic decision making. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 119, 440–446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harle, KM, Chang, LJ, van ‘t Wout, M, Sanfey, AG (2012). The neural mechanisms of affect infusion in social economic decision-making: a mediating role of the anterior insula. NeuroImage 61, 32–40.Google Scholar
Hirschfeld, RM, Montgomery, SA, Keller, MB, Kasper, S, Schatzberg, AF, Moller, HJ, Healy, D, Baldwin, D, Humble, M, Versiani, M, Montenegro, R, Bourgeois, M (2000). Social functioning in depression: a review. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 61, 268–275.Google Scholar
Horowitz, LM, Rosenberg, SE, Bartholomew, K (1993). Interpersonal problems, attachment styles, and outcome in brief dynamic psychotherapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 61, 549–560.Google Scholar
Kessler, RC, Berglund, P, Demler, O, Jin, R, Koretz, D, Merikangas, KR, Rush, AJ, Walters, EE, Wang, PS (2003). The epidemiology of major depressive disorder: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). Journal of the American Medical Association 289, 3095–3105.Google Scholar
King-Casas, B, Chiu, PH (2012). Understanding interpersonal function in psychiatric illness through multiplayer economic games. Biological Psychiatry 72, 119–125.Google Scholar
King-Casas, B, Tomlin, D, Anen, C, Camerer, CF, Quartz, SR, Montague, PR (2005). Getting to know you: reputation and trust in a two-person economic exchange. Science 308, 78–83.Google Scholar
Lee, D (2008). Game theory and neural basis of social decision making. Nature Neuroscience 11, 404–409.Google Scholar
Mathers, CD, Loncar, D (2006). Projections of global mortality and burden of disease from 2002 to 2030. PLoS Medicine 3, e442.Google Scholar
Montgomery, SA, Asberg, M (1979). A new depression scale designed to be sensitive to change. British Journal of Psychiatry 134, 382–389.Google Scholar
Nelson, HE, Wilson, JR (1991). The Revised National Adult Reading Test: Test Manual. NFER-Wilson: Windsor.Google Scholar
O'Doherty, J, Dayan, P, Schultz, J, Deichmann, R, Friston, K, Dolan, RJ (2004). Dissociable roles of ventral and dorsal striatum in instrumental conditioning. Science 304, 452–454.Google Scholar
Ormel, J, Vonkorff, M, Oldehinkel, AJ, Simon, G, Tiemens, BG, Ustun, TB (1999). Onset of disability in depressed and non-depressed primary care patients. Psychological Medicine 29, 847–853.Google Scholar
Papakostas, GI, Petersen, T, Mahal, Y, Mischoulon, D, Nierenberg, AA, Fava, M (2004). Quality of life assessments in major depressive disorder: a review of the literature. General Hospital Psychiatry 26, 13–17.Google Scholar
Pizzagalli, DA, Holmes, AJ, Dillon, DG, Goetz, EL, Birk, JL, Bogdan, R, Dougherty, DD, Iosifescu, DV, Rauch, SL, Fava, M (2009). Reduced caudate and nucleus accumbens response to rewards in unmedicated individuals with major depressive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 166, 702–710.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robins, CJ, Ladd, J, Welkowitz, J, Blaney, PH, Diaz, R, Kutcher, G (1994). The personal style inventory: preliminary validation studies of new measures of sociotropy and autonomy. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 16, 277–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, M (1965). Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Sanfey, AG, Rilling, JK, Aronson, JA, Nystrom, LE, Cohen, JD (2003). The neural basis of economic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game. Science 300, 1755–1758.Google Scholar
Scheele, D, Mihov, Y, Schwederski, O, Maier, W, Hurlemann, R (2013). A negative emotional and economic judgment bias in major depression. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 263, 675–6783.Google Scholar
Slotnick, SD, Moo, LR, Segal, JB, Hart, J Jr. (2003). Distinct prefrontal cortex activity associated with item memory and source memory for visual shapes. Brain Research. Cognitive Brain Research 17, 75–82.Google Scholar
Snaith, RP, Hamilton, M, Morley, S, Humayan, A, Hargreaves, D, Trigwell, P (1995). A scale for the assessment of hedonic tone the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale. British Journal of Psychiatry 167, 99–103.Google Scholar
Spielberger, CD (1983). Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory: STAI (Form Y-1). Mind Garden: Palo Alto, CA.Google Scholar
Tabibnia, G, Satpute, AB, Lieberman, MD (2008). The sunny side of fairness: preference for fairness activates reward circuitry (and disregarding unfairness activates self-control circuitry). Psychological Science 19, 339–347.Google Scholar
Tricomi, E, Rangel, A, Camerer, CF, O'Doherty, JP (2010). Neural evidence for inequality-averse social preferences. Nature 463, 1089–1091.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tricomi, EM, Delgado, MR, Fiez, JA (2004). Modulation of caudate activity by action contingency. Neuron 41, 281–292.Google Scholar
Watson, D, Clark, LA, Tellegen, A (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54, 1063–1070.Google Scholar
Wright, ND, Symmonds, M, Fleming, SM, Dolan, RJ (2011). Neural segregation of objective and contextual aspects of fairness. Journal of Neuroscience 31, 5244–5252.Google Scholar
Zhang, WN, Chang, SH, Guo, LY, Zhang, KL, Wang, J (2013). The neural correlates of reward-related processing in major depressive disorder: a meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Journal of Affective Disorders 151, 531–539.Google Scholar
Zlotnick, C, Kohn, R, Keitner, G, Della Grotta, SA (2000). The relationship between quality of interpersonal relationships and major depressive disorder: findings from the National Comorbidity Survey. Journal of Affective Disorders 59, 205–215.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Gradin Supplementary Material

Tables S1-S4

Download Gradin Supplementary Material(File)
File 213 KB