Movement Disorder Patients with Depression Have Altered Corticostriatal Alpha-Beta Power Response to Reward and Loss
Helen Qian1,2, Graham W Johnson3,4, Natasha C Hughes3,5
1Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
Eneuro
|July 1, 2026
Summary
Depression symptom severity in movement disorder patients is linked to altered reward signaling in the brain. Specifically, reduced alpha-beta power in corticostriatal circuits may underlie reward dysfunction in these individuals.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Neurology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Depression frequently co-occurs with movement disorders like Parkinson's disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET).
- Altered reward processing is a key feature of depression, but its neural underpinnings in comorbid movement disorders are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural activity patterns of reward signaling in patients with PD and ET who have varying depression severity.
- To determine how corticostriatal oscillatory power during reward feedback differs based on movement disorder type and depression symptoms.
Main Methods:
- Intracranial electroencephalography (EEG) recordings were obtained from 14 PD and 16 ET patients during deep brain stimulation surgery.
- Patients performed a working memory task with reward/loss feedback, while signals were recorded from the caudate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).
- Statistical analyses, including cluster-based permutation testing and ANOVAs, were used to assess differences in alpha-beta (8-30 Hz) oscillatory power.
Main Results:
- Alpha-beta power in the caudate and DLPFC increased during reward feedback, but this increase was attenuated in depressed subjects.
- Higher Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) scores negatively predicted corticostriatal alpha-beta power during both reward and loss feedback.
- Depressed PD patients exhibited greater decreases in DLPFC alpha-beta power following loss feedback compared to non-depressed patients.
Conclusions:
- Altered corticostriatal alpha-beta oscillatory power is associated with reward dysfunction in depression among patients with movement disorders.
- These findings suggest that corticostriatal circuits and their alpha-beta activity are potential targets for treating depression in movement disorder patients.
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