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Neural substrates of expectancy violation associated with social feedback in individuals with subthreshold depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2020

Zhenhong He ,
Xiang Ao ,
Nils Muhlert ,
Rebecca Elliott  and
Dandan Zhang
Zhenhong He
Affiliation:
Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China
Xiang Ao
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China
Nils Muhlert
Affiliation:
Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Rebecca Elliott
Affiliation:
Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Dandan Zhang*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518060, China
*
Author for correspondence: Dandan Zhang, E-mail: zhangdd05@gmail.com
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Abstract

Background

Abnormal processing of social feedback is an important contributor to social dysfunction in depression, however the exact mechanisms remain unclear. One important factor may be the extent to which social processing depends on expectations, in particular whether social feedback confirms or violates expectations.

Methods

To answer this question, we studied behavioral and brain responses during the evaluative processing of social feedback in 25 individuals with subthreshold depression (SD) and 25 healthy controls (HCs). Participants completed a Social Judgment Task in which they first indicated expectation about whether a peer would like them or not, and then received peer's feedback indicating acceptance or rejection.

Results

Individuals with SD who reported greater depressive symptoms gave fewer positive expectations. Compared to HCs, individuals with SD showed reduced activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when expecting positive feedback. They also exhibited increased dorsal anterior cingulate cortex after receipt of unexpected social rejection, and reduced ventral striatum activity after receipt of unexpected social acceptance.

Conclusions

The observed alternations are specific to unexpected social feedback processing and highlight an important role of expectancy violation in the brain dysfunction of social feedback perception and evaluation in individuals at risk for depression.

Keywords

Depressiondorsal anterior cingulate cortexexpectancy violationmedial prefrontal cortexsocial feedbackventral striatum
Type
Original Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 52 , Issue 11 , August 2022 , pp. 2043 - 2051
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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