Can Understanding Reward Help Illuminate Anhedonia?

Kaya, Mehmet; McCabe, Ciara

doi:10.1007/s40473-019-00186-1

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…As a prior metaanalysis suggested that both reward sensitivity and learning rate contribute to performance on the task (Huys et al, 2013), the specific aspects of reward processing that may be gauged by PRT performance remains an important topic for future research. Overall, while research has begun to explore links between subcomponents of reward processing and anhedonia, neurobiological processes through which anhedonia relates to subcomponents of reward remain undercharacterized (Kaya & McCabe, 2019;Treadway & Zald, 2011) | 1227 development efforts focused on reward processing (Craske et al, 2016(Craske et al, , 2019Taylor, Lyubomirsky, & Stein, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A growing body of literature supports anhedonia and alterations in reward processing as a promising endophenotype for depression (Admon & Pizzagalli, 2015; Hasler, Drevets, Manji, & Charney, 2004; Whitton, Treadway, & Pizzagalli, 2015), although the ways in which anhedonia may relate to differing aspects of reward processing remain unclear (Höflich, Michenthaler, Kasper, & Lanzenberger, 2019; Kaya & McCabe, 2019). Generally, reward processing is now recognized as comprised of several interrelated, but distinct components, including anticipation and motivation to approach rewards (i.e., “wanting”), consumption of rewards (i.e., “liking”), and learning to alter future behavior following receipt of rewards (i.e., “learning”; Berridge, Robinson, & Aldridge, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diagnostic and dimensional evaluation of implicit reward learning in social anxiety disorder and major depression

et al. 2020

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Objective: Increasing evidence supports the presence of an anhedonic endophenotype in major depressive disorder (MDD), characterized by impairments in various components of reward processing, particularly incentive motivation, effortbased decision making, and reward learning. In addition to its prominent role in MDD, reward processing dysregulation has been proposed as a transdiagnostic risk and/or maintenance factor for a range of other forms of psychopathology. Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD)-a condition that frequently co-occurs with MDD-demonstrate low trait positive affectivity and altered processing of rewards and positively valenced information. However, no studies to date have directly tested reward learning-the ability to modulate behavior in response to rewards-in this population. Materials and Methods: The current study evaluated reward learning in MDD, SAD, and healthy control subjects (N = 90) using a well-validated signal detection task. Given increasing data supporting transdiagnostic features of psychopathology, we also evaluated associations between anhedonia and task performance transdiagnostically in the patient sample. Results: Contrary to expectations, results indicated no significant group differences in response bias in the full sample, suggesting no diagnostic differences in reward learning. However, dimensional analyses revealed that higher self-reported anhedonia (but not general distress or anxious arousal) was associated with worse reward learning in both the MDD and SAD groups explaining about 11% of the variance. Conclusion: Deficits in implicit reward learning are associated with anhedonia but not necessarily with major depressive disorder as a diagnosis, which supports the use of transdiagnostic approaches to understanding psychopathology.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diagnostic and dimensional evaluation of implicit reward learning in social anxiety disorder and major depression

et al. 2020

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“…Much of this work was initially driven by observations that individuals with EDs often endorse increased anhedonia [ 5 , 6 ] outside the context of depression, alongside altered activity in reward-related brain regions to disorder-specific stimuli (i.e., thinness, weight loss, food) [ 7 ]. In addition, recent theoretical work outside of EDs has proposed that because anhedonia appears to be driven by neurobiological alterations in the reward system [ 8 , 9 ], which also appears to be altered in EDs, treatments that target reward-related symptoms and anhedonia may help improve long-term outcomes [ 10 , 11 ]. However, the field’s knowledge regarding specific aspects of hedonic processing has been limited by (a) a lack of consideration of different subcomponents of reward processing that may influence an individual’s ability to experience pleasure and (b) insufficient consideration of anhedonia across a range of ED diagnoses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in eating disorders

et al. 2022

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Background Recent research suggests that anhedonia, or the inability to experience pleasure, is elevated in individuals with eating disorders (EDs). However, past literature has only studied anhedonia in EDs as a unidimensional construct rather than separately examining anticipatory (i.e., prediction of pleasure for a future event) and consummatory (i.e., enjoyment of a present event) pleasure. Given that these subcomponents of pleasure have distinct neurobiological correlates, studying pleasure as a multifaceted construct may yield important insights into the underlying mechanisms of binge eating or food restriction. Methods A sample of 124 women with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or other specified feeding or eating disorder and 84 control women (CW) completed self-report measures of anticipatory pleasure, consummatory pleasure, ED symptoms, depression, harm avoidance, and anxiety. Results Individuals with EDs endorsed significantly lower anticipatory pleasure than CW, but there were no significant group differences in consummatory pleasure. Further, there were no significant differences in self-reported pleasure among ED diagnostic groups. Within the ED sample, anticipatory pleasure but not consummatory pleasure was positively related to binge eating frequency and significantly negatively correlated with cognitive ED symptoms, state and trait anxiety, and harm avoidance. Both anticipatory and consummatory pleasure was negatively associated with depression. Conclusion The results of the current study suggest that lower pleasure across the ED spectrum may be due to deficits in anticipatory, but not consummatory, pleasure. Future research should continue to explore the behavioral, affective, and neural correlates of anticipatory pleasure in EDs to characterize better how it relates to the onset and maintenance of binge eating and other eating disorder pathology.

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“…To develop new targets for treatment, a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that underly depression symptoms is needed. Anhedonia, the lack of interest and pleasure in normally rewarding experiences, is one of the main symptoms of depression and is thought to be underpinned by dysfunctional reward processing (Argyropoulos and Nutt, 2013;Treadway and Zald, 2011) (Kaya and McCabe, 2019;McCabe, 2018;Rizvi et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anhedonia sub-components and reward and effort learning for primary and secondary rewards in young people with depression symptoms

Frey¹,

Kaya²,

Adeniyi³

et al. 2021

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Background: Anhedonia, a central depression symptom, is associated with impairments in reward processing. However how the sub-components of reward processing (anticipation, motivation, consummation and learning) are related to depression symptoms is not well understood. In particular, little is known about how effort cost and reward learning is related to anhedonia.Methods: We recruited young people with high (N=50) and low (N=88) depression symptoms and assessed their learning, consummatory, anticipatory, and motivational responses within an effort and reward learning task. To increase the reward attractiveness, especially for younger people, we included not only money (secondary reward), but also chocolate tastes and puppy images (primary rewards).Results: Across all participants, we found that self-reported willingness to exert effort positively correlated with actual effort exertion and negatively with effort completion times. We also observed higher accuracy for reward learning vs. effort learning. Additionally, effort expenditure differed between reward types, although no differences in reward liking were observed. Interestingly, we also found that higher anticipatory anhedonia was associated with lower reward learning accuracy. Limitations: The study assessed only depressive symptoms, not clinically diagnosed major depression. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine reward and effort learning simultaneously in young people with depression symptoms. Our findings suggest a differentiation between motivational and consummatory responses, as well as between reward and effort learning. Moreover, we show that anticipatory anhedonia is related to reward learning. Understanding the link between objective reward processing and anhedonia sub-types could provide new targets for treatment development.

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Can Understanding Reward Help Illuminate Anhedonia?

Cited by 6 publications

References 80 publications

Diagnostic and dimensional evaluation of implicit reward learning in social anxiety disorder and major depression

Diagnostic and dimensional evaluation of implicit reward learning in social anxiety disorder and major depression

Anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in eating disorders

Anhedonia sub-components and reward and effort learning for primary and secondary rewards in young people with depression symptoms

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