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PRIMARY REWARD MECHANISM DYSFUNCTION IF DEPRESSION

Award Number: K23MH079118
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 08/01/2008
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 11/04/2012

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PRIMARY REWARD MECHANISM DYSFUNCTION IF DEPRESSION - DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposed Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K-23) research project will provide me the support and training to become a successful independent researcher. The research plan studies participants with Major Depressive Disorder (MOD), a common and devastating mental illness. Specifically, the research probes the functioning of the primary reward system in depression as it can shed light on the core symptom of anhedonia that can provide important future therapeutic target for more effective interventions. Taste stimuli in the form of fruit juice (pleasant) and quinine (aversive) will be delivered during event-related fMRI to characterize the reward circuitry and it's functioning in un-medicated depressed patients by contrasting it with normal controls. Also, possible differential response to taste reward versus monetary reward will be investigated in the exploratory aim. We will recruit 40 participants with MOD and 40 matched controls to test our hypothesis. We hypothesize that compared to controls, during the anticipation of the pleasant taste; depressed patients will have decreased activation in the ventral striatum with relatively preserved or minimal dysfunction in the activation in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to the receipt of the pleasant taste (specific aim 1). Furthermore, depressed patients will have greater activation to the anticipation of the aversive stimuli (quinine) in the amygdala with minimally increased or preserved representaion of receipt in the anterior cingulate cortex and the OFC (more lateral to the reward activations) [specific aim 2]. We will then use a dual reward paradigm with both taste and monitory reward in the same experiment simultaneously. We hypothesize that the anticipation of monetary reward will elicit a larger activation in the ventral striatum and the representation of the receipt of monetary reward will be more anteriorly situated in the OFC when compared to primary taste reward. (Exploratory aim) In patients with depression, the anticipatory component of primary reward will be more compromised than the anticipation of money whereas in the receipt component, the response to juice will be preserved while the receipt of money will be compromised. This mentored career development award will provide me the essential time; education and mentoring to develop my research skills by conducting the translational research detailed in the award thus accomplish my goal of becoming an independent scientist.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2013 ( Subtotal = -$137,037 )
2013	2012	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY	CAMPUS BOX 1034	SAINT LOUIS	MO	63112	SAINT LOUIS CITY	USA	Mental Health Research Career/Scientist Development Awards	000	5	4/25/2013	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$137,037
														Subtotal = -$137,037

Issue Date FY: 2012 ( Subtotal = $170,138 )
2012	2012	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY	CAMPUS BOX 1034	SAINT LOUIS	MO	63112	SAINT LOUIS CITY	USA	Mental Health Research Career/Scientist Development Awards	000	5	7/16/2012	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$170,138
														Subtotal = $170,138

Issue Date FY: 2011 ( Subtotal = $170,173 )
2011	2011	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY	CAMPUS BOX 1034	SAINT LOUIS	MO	63112	SAINT LOUIS CITY	USA	Mental Health Research Career/Scientist Development Awards	000	4	7/15/2011	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$170,173
														Subtotal = $170,173

Issue Date FY: 2010 ( Subtotal = $170,285 )
2010	2010	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY	CAMPUS BOX 1034	SAINT LOUIS	MO	63112	SAINT LOUIS CITY	USA	Mental Health Research Career/Scientist Development Awards	000	3	6/23/2010	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$170,285
														Subtotal = $170,285

Issue Date FY: 2009 ( Subtotal = $170,222 )
2009	2009	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY	CAMPUS BOX 1034	SAINT LOUIS	MO	63112	SAINT LOUIS CITY	USA	Mental Health Research Career/Scientist Development Awards	000	2	7/10/2009	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$170,222
														Subtotal = $170,222

Issue Date FY: 2008 ( Subtotal = $170,301 )
2008	2008	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY	CAMPUS BOX 1034	SAINT LOUIS	MO	63112	SAINT LOUIS CITY	USA	Mental Health Research Career/Scientist Development Awards	000	1	7/30/2008	NEW	$170,301
														Subtotal = $170,301

Grand Total All Awards = $714,082

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PRIMARY REWARD MECHANISM DYSFUNCTION IF DEPRESSION

Award Number: K23MH079118

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 08/01/2008

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 11/04/2012

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