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The effects of reboxetine on emotional processing in healthy volunteers: an fMRI study

Molecular Psychiatry volume 13, pages 1011–1020 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Recent neuropsychological studies in healthy volunteers suggest that antidepressants enhance the processing of positive emotional information. However, the neural substrates underpinning these changes have not been fully elucidated. The current study, therefore, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map brain systems activated during successful categorization and subsequent recognition of self-referent positive and negative personality characteristics in healthy volunteers following short-term (7 days) repeated administration of the selective noradrenergic reuptake inhibitor reboxetine. Twenty-four healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to 7-day double-blind intervention with reboxetine or placebo. On day 7, neural responses during the categorization and subsequent recognition of positive and negative characteristics were assessed using fMRI. Questionnaires monitoring mood, hostility and anxiety were given before and during this intervention. During categorization, reboxetine was associated with greater activation to positive words, relative to negative words, in left precuneus and right inferior frontal gyrus. By contrast, at subsequent recognition reboxetine was associated with reduced response to positive words, relative to negative words, in left precuneus, anterior cingulate and medial frontal gyrus. These changes in the neural processing of positive and negative words occurred in the absence of significant differences in ratings of mood and anxiety. Such adaptations in the neural processing of emotional information support the hypothesis that antidepressants have early effects on emotional processing in a manner which would be expected to reverse negative biases in depression.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Medical Research Council, UK. We thank the staff at OCMR for their help in data acquisition. We are also grateful to all the volunteers who took part in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, Headington, UK

    R Norbury, C E Mackay, P J Cowen, G M Goodwin & C J Harmer

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Psychopharmacology and Emotion Research Laboratory, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, Headington, UK

    R Norbury & C J Harmer

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  1. R Norbury
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  2. C E Mackay
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  3. P J Cowen
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  4. G M Goodwin
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  5. C J Harmer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to R Norbury.

Additional information

This study was presented in part at the 18th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 22–26 October, 2005.

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Norbury, R., Mackay, C., Cowen, P. et al. The effects of reboxetine on emotional processing in healthy volunteers: an fMRI study. Mol Psychiatry 13, 1011–1020 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4002091

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4002091

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