Not Feeling It: Adolescent Depression and Reward Processing Gone Awry
Tuesday, November 10, 2020, 2:00 pm EST
Depression doesn’t just increase negative emotions like sadness: it decreases positive emotions, as evidenced by fatigue, low motivation, and difficulty looking forward to or enjoying pleasant events. The brain’s reward circuitry is the neural basis for these changes, and it is undergoing dramatic development during adolescence, when depression typically begins. This presentation will describe the ways that disrupted function in these reward systems accompanies depression, could make some adolescents more vulnerable to depression, and might even help us predict clinical course and treatment response.
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Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Psychology and Clinical and Translational Science
University of Pittsburgh
Scientific Council Member (Joined 2024)
2014 Independent Investigator Grant
2006 Young Investigator Grant
Dr. Forbes' research addresses the regulation and dysregulation of positive affect and the processing of reward in childhood depression. Her current project involves a study of low activation of in reward-related brain areas, low subjective experience of positive affect in natural settings as measured by ecological momentary assessment, and the relationship of the fMRI-revealed brain activation to seeking and experiencing positive affects in natural settings.
Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., serves as the President & CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the largest private funder of mental health research grants. Dr. Borenstein developed the Emmy-nominated public television program “Healthy Minds,” and serves as host and executive producer of the series. The program, broadcast nationwide, is available online, and focuses on topics in psychiatry in order to educate the public, reduce stigma and offer a message of hope. Dr. Borenstein served as Editor-in-Chief of Psychiatric News, the newspaper of the American Psychiatric Association from 2012 - 2023.
Dr. Borenstein is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and serves as the Chair of the Section of Psychiatry at the Academy. He also has served as the President of the New York State Psychiatric Association. Dr. Borenstein earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard and his medical degree at New York University.
