Mapping the neural and computational traces of lack of controllability and their relevance for depression

We will use a new paradigm to characterize the behavioural and neuronal effects of uncontrollable aversive stimulation in healthy volunteers and develop behavioural markers of lack of control in depressed patients.

First, we will also use cognitive testing to study the effects of uncontrollable aversive stimulation on decision-making abilities and we will use fMRI to study how uncontrollable aversive stimulation affects functional connectivity. Second, we will use a smartphone app to collect data on decision-making abilities in depressed patients. We will identify groups of depressed patients based on the clusters of variation in decision-making abilities in depression and relate these to clinical outcomes. This project will elucidate the behavioural and neuronal effects of uncontrollable aversive stimulation in healthy participants and promote our understanding of how abnormal decision-making processes relate to depression.

Co-applicants and researchers involved in the project are Lars Nyberg and Anna Rieckmann, both at Umeå University, Department of Radiation Sciences and Andreas Olsson, Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Neuroscience