Multimodal Differences in Effort-based Decision-Making in Depression - - Brain Behavior Quantification and Synchronization
Georgia Institute of Technology
Summary
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious condition that causes long-term symptoms such as feeling sad, losing interest in activities, and having thoughts of self-harm. Difficulty in making an effort is a key factor in functional impairment. Current methods to evaluate this difficulty use clinical assessments and computer-based tasks, but there is a gap between the measurements and real-life behavior. To address this, the study team proposes creating an instrumented behavioral test, HORMES, to objectively assess reduced motivation during everyday activities and measure physiological responses. The study will examine differences in brain activity, autonomic system function, and metabolic energy expenditure in patients with major depression during a decision-making task that involves physical effort.
Description
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating neuropsychiatric condition characterized by multiple chronic symptoms, including sad mood, anhedonia, psychomotor symptoms, and suicidal thoughts. MDD induces significant personal and societal suffering, becoming the largest contributor to the overall disease burden in developed countries. There is clearly an urgent need to advance our understanding of MDD and its constituent symptoms. Of these, the inability to expend effort have proven harder to treat than mood-related symptoms and are key predictors of functional impairment and disease burde…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–65 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Matched control group * 18-65 years old * Able-bodied * Fluent in English * Able to give written and verbal informed consent to the proposed experiment * Able to comprehend the study procedure, potential risks, and benefits * Group with depression * Diagnosed with major depression * Quick Inventory of Depression Symptomology (QIDS) score \> 5 * 18-65 years old * Able-bodied * Fluent in English * Able to give written and verbal informed consent to the proposed experiment * Able to comprehend the study procedure, potential risks, and benefits Exc…
Interventions
- OtherEffort-based Decision-Making Task
Virtual Reality-based multi-stage task in which individuals must explore distinct "rooms" in a virtual environment that vary in the amount of effort (walking) and reward (points) they receive.
Location
- Georgia Tech Manufacturing InstituteAtlanta, Georgia