Function of Catecholamines in the Brain During Depression

The depressive and anhedonic response precipitated by CD raises the possibility that dysfunction of the dopamine system is a stable, sometimes latent characteristic of MDD. Following this line of reasoning, central catecholamine dysfunction as evinced by CD may be equally salient in a subset of unaffected relatives who are at genetic risk for developing the disorder. We plan to extend the phase I project to unaffected relatives of BD and MDD patients in order to evaluate sensitivity to CD as an endophenotype of MDD and BD. In order to maximize our statistical power, we will be recruiting equal numbers healthy low and high-risk relatives. Here, risk is defined on the basis of chronological age (see below for more detail). Furthermore, it has recently become feasible to conduct genome-wide association studies and quantify the burden of risk alleles carried by an individual. Certainly, the identity of these risk alleles remains unknown or unproven. Nevertheless, Francis McMahon's group, with whom we are collaborating, have identified upwards of 20 common risk variants in two independent samples. Individuals carrying 19 or more of these risk alleles were found to be 4 times more likely to be cases than controls. This approach may provide us with another method of quantifying genetic risk. The endophenotypic status of sensitivity to CD will be evaluated with psychometric instruments, FDG PET, and an fMRI-coupled appetitive learning task. We now have access to a high resolution PET scanner (High Resolution Research Tomograph) that will enable us to study hitherto irresolvable structures of importance such as the habenula and peri-aqueductal gray matter (PAG) in addition to previously implicated regions such as the ventral striatum and OFC. Analysis of the metabolic activity of these regions under sham and CD conditions in both remitted MDD and relatives of BD and MDD patients is of great theoretical import. So to is identifying regions of the brain involved in reward response that are selectively impacted by CD, a question that we hope to answer through the use of the fMRI-coupled appetitive learning task.