Anhedonia refers to the reduced ability to experience pleasure, and has been studied in different neuropsychi- atric disorders. Anhedonia is nevertheless considered as a core feature of major depressive disorder, according to DSM-IV criteria for major depression and the definition of melancholic subtype, and regarding its capacity to predict antidepressant response. Behavioral, electrophysiological, hemodynamic, and interview-based measures and self- reports have been used to assess anhedonia, but the most interesting findings concern neuropharmacological and neuroanatomical studies. The analyses of anhedonic non- clinical subjects, nonanhedonic depressed patients, and depressed patients with various levels of anhedonia seem to favor the hypothesis that the severity of anhedonia is associated with a deficit of activity of the ventral striatum (including the nucleus accumbens) and an excess of activ- ity of ventral region of the prefrontal cortex (including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the orbitofrontal cor- tex), with a pivotal, but not exclusive, role of dopamine. © 2008, LLS SAS Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2008;10:291-299.

via The Core of Depression-27.

I want my Dopamine-and I want it NOW!
If you can read and understand this:
“The nucleus accumbens receives projections from midbrain regions (such as the ventral tegmental area), from regions involved in emo- tion (such as the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and medial prefrontal cortex), from motor regions (such as the dorsal caudate and globus pallidus), and from regions involved in memory (such as the hippocampus).” Just click the link and enjoy the rest of this lengthy, educational and facinatimng article. Diane

Help!! My Brain is Shrinking!

Difficulties Experiencing Simple Pleasures May Be Caused By Smaller Brains

An area of the brain is smaller in those with anhedonia, or an inability to enjoy simple pleasures as much as the average person.

Yet another biological link between mental illnesses like depression and schizophrenia and brain physiology has been discovered by scientists at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal.

Anhedonia, or the inability to experience simple pleasures as strongly as the average person, is a symptom of illnesses such as depression. It also may be because of a smaller area of the brain in which pleasures are processed. Douglas researchers have discovered that patients who suffer from anhedonia also have smaller area of the brain called the anterior caudate. This area of the brain, located in the center regions, is responsible for pleasure and reward.

According to MRI scans of patients with varying degrees of anhedonia, those who suffered the most from this ailment processed pleasurable images, such as a beautiful waterfall, in the part of the brain responsible for cognition rather than in the anterior caudate. The twenty-nine patients chosen for the study had no previously diagnosed mental illness. Their degrees of anhedonia were measured by a questionnaire that contained questions such as “I genegenerally agree that making love is an intense pleasure” that were rated on a scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”, with those choosing “strongly disagree” on such questions to be considered highly anhedonic.

“The hypothesis is that because they don’t feel pleasure as high as other people, when they analyze positive information, they have to process it at a more cognitive level,” explained lead author Philippe-Olivier Harvey to the Montreal Gazette. “So there is a genuine lack of pleasure and they have to compensate for this by an overactivation of this (cognitive) region of the brain.”

In those who enjoyed pleasure normally, this cognitive area of the brain, located just behind the forehead, was not active.

These findings are significant for advocates of the biological connections of various mental illnesses. It also will make treatment of some forms of depression and schizophrenia easier as a simple MRI scan can tell physicians why the patient is having a difficult time feeling pleasure and adjust treatment accordingly.

“It has been well established that anhedonia is a key symptom of major depression and schizophrenia,” said Douglas researcher Martin Lepage. “We chose to study this core symptom in hopes of finding a vulnerability marker to better diagnose these mental illnesses.”

via Anhedonia – Difficulties Experiencing Simple Pleasures May Be Caused By Smaller Brains.;