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Elsevier
論文を投稿する
Press release

Large, Highly Likely Rewards Can Increase Motivation in Individuals Who Have Recovered from Depression

2025年5月1日

New research published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging sheds light on decision-making and reward strategies and can help assess relapse vulnerability and promote sustained recovery and well-being

New research shows that individuals who have recovered from depression are generally less willing to exert effort to pursue potential rewards compared to those who have never experienced depression, unless the rewards are large and highly likely. A new study in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, published by Elsevier, provides deeper insights into subtle motivational deficits that persist in individuals who have recovered from depression, potentially explaining relapse vulnerability and guiding targeted treatment for sustained recovery and overall patient well-being.

Individuals who have experienced depression in the past are often at a higher risk of experiencing another depressive episode. Despite improvements in mood after recovery from depression, they continue to exhibit some cognitive and motivational deficits, such as alterations in reward processing, impairing daily activities and functional recovery. The reasons behind this remain unclear. Researchers of the current study wanted to better understand the hidden processes in decision-making and motivation that might contribute to relapse vulnerability and identify ways to help people stay healthy after recovering from depression.

Lead investigator Diego A. Pizzagalli, PhD, formerly Center for Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Research, McLean Hospital (Belmont, MA) and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, now Founding Director, Noel Drury, MD, Institute for Translational Depression Discoveries, Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior & Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Noel Drury MD Endowed Chair, University of California at Irvine, says, ”Imagine an everyday scenario: deciding whether to meet a friend after work or simply stay home because going out feels too exhausting. Individuals with a history of depression might more often opt for the less effortful choice—staying home—missing out on rewarding experiences and social interactions. Over time, repeatedly choosing the low-effort path could unintentionally reinforce behaviors or thought patterns that increase the risk of falling back into depression."

The research entailed asking individuals who had previously experienced depression (but have recovered and are not currently using medication) and a group of participants who had never experienced depression to make a series of choices between low-effort tasks with smaller rewards and high-effort tasks with potentially larger rewards. Given evidence that antidepressants can blunt reward-related neural processes, only unmedicated individuals with remitted major depressive disorder were included to minimize potential confounding effects.

Choices were then analyzed using computational methods to understand motivation and decision-making. The most significant results showed that recovered individuals generally preferred less effortful options, but notably, they became equally or even more motivated than healthy individuals when rewards were large and highly certain. This suggests that while motivation may be reduced in everyday tasks, providing clear and highly valuable incentives can effectively boost motivation in individuals with a history of depression.

Editor-in-Chief of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Cameron S. Carter, MD, University of California Irvine, notes, "Reduced motivation is a core feature of depression. Utilizing the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task test, researchers examined how individuals weigh the potential benefits of rewards against the cognitive or physical effort required to obtain them, providing valuable insights into motivational processes underlying major depressive disorder. The findings from this study suggest a nuanced picture of decision-making in recovered depression, highlighting conditions under which motivation may actually surpass typical levels."

First author Manuel Kuhn, PhD, Center for Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Research, McLean Hospital (Belmont, MA) and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, concludes, "This research is novel because it applies advanced computational modeling techniques, allowing us to identify latent decision-making processes—such as how reward magnitude and effort cost are integrated—that conventional analytical methods have not yet been able to uncover. This is particularly important now, as it provides deeper insights into subtle motivational deficits that persist in individuals who have recovered from depression, potentially explaining their vulnerability to relapse triggers. By pinpointing these underlying motivational mechanisms, our findings can inform the development of more targeted treatments designed to enhance sustained recovery and overall patient well-being."

Notes for editors

The article is "Computational Phenotyping of Effort-Based Decision Making in Unmedicated Adults with Remitted Depression," by Manuel Kuhn, Emma H. Palermo, Guillaume Pagnier, Jacob, M. Blank, David C. Steinberger, Yinru Long, Genevieve Nowicki, Jessica A. Cooper, Michael T. Treadway, Michael J. Frank, and Diego A. Pizzagalli (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2025.02.006). It appears online in advance of volume 10, issue 6 (June 2025) of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, published by Elsevier.

The article is openly available for 30 days at https://www.biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org/article/S2451-9022(25)00063-1/fulltext.

Copies of this paper are also available to credentialed journalists upon request; please contact Rhiannon Bugno at [email protected]. Journalists wishing to interview the study’s authors should contact:

McLean Hospital

Ryan Jaslow, Program Director, External Communications at Mass General Brigham, at [email protected]

University of California Irvine

Ethan Perez,Director of Marketing & Communications, Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences, at +1 949 824 6282 or [email protected]

Matt Miller, Director of Communication, School of Medicine, at [email protected]

The authors’ affiliations and disclosures of financial and conflicts of interest are available in the article.

Cameron S. Carter, MD, is Chair of the Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. His disclosures of financial and conflicts of interest are available here.

The present work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health grants P50MH119467 and R01 4R37MH068376-17.

About Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging

Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging is an official journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, whose purpose is to promote excellence in scientific research and education in fields that investigate the nature, causes, mechanisms and treatments of disorders of thought, emotion, or behavior. In accord with this mission, this peer-reviewed, rapid-publication, international journal focuses on studies using the tools and constructs of cognitive neuroscience, including the full range of non-invasive neuroimaging and human extra- and intracranial physiological recording methodologies. It publishes both basic and clinical studies, including those that incorporate genetic data, pharmacological challenges, and computational modeling approaches. The 2023 Journal Impact FactorTM score, from Clarivate, for Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging is 5.7. www.sobp.org/bpcnni

エルゼビアについて

エルゼビアは、先端情報と意思決定を支援しています。1世紀以上にわたり、人類の進歩のため先端科学とヘルスケアの進歩に貢献してきました。私たちは、170か国にわたるアカデミアや企業の研究コミュニティ、医師、看護師、未来の医療従事者、教育者の皆さまの重要な活動をサポートしています。これは、信頼できるエビデンスに基づく科学・医療コンテンツと高度なAI技術を組み合わせた革新的なソリューションにより知見の集積や重要な意思決定を支援することで実現しています。また、私たちは、これらの価値を製品や企業文化に組み込み、コミュニティとの協働を通じて、インクルージョンと持続可能性を推進しています。エルゼビア財団は、世界中の研究と医療のパートナーシップを支援しています。

エルゼビアは、専門家およびビジネス向けの情報分析および意思決定ツールのグローバルプロバイダーであるRELX Groupの一事業を担っています。詳細につきましては、www.elsevier.comソーシャルメディア@Elsevier Connectをご覧ください。

連絡先

RB

Rhiannon Bugno

Editorial Office

Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging

E-mail Rhiannon Bugno