Abnormal pleasure levels and neural processing in response to positive and negative music in postpartum depression: a preliminary functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Objective To explore the neural activity of females with post-partum depression in response to negative and positive emotional music and further to examine the relationship between the psychological pleasure levels and the abnormal neural activity in post-partum depression. Methods Eleven postpartum healthy females and 11 unmediated depressed females underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging blood-oxygen-level-dependent acquisition during a block-designed emotional music. Results The depressed females showed lower pleasure levels both to the positive and negative music（6.23±1.01，3.08±0.64, respectively） than healthy ones（7.00±0.63, 3.72±0.47, respectively），the difference was statistically significant(t=-2.27，P=0.03；t=-2.79，P=0.01). Postpartum depression patients exhibited significantly stronger hippocampus activation than the healthy subjects and there was a significant negative correlation between right hippocampus activity and psychological pleasure levels to negative music. Conclusion Postpartum depressied females may have lower pleasure levels to negative music, which may be related to the abnormal activation of the right hippocampus. Key words: Depression, postpartum; Music; Magnetic resonance imaging; Amygdala; Hippocampus