Real-life validation of reduced reward processing in emerging adults with depressive symptoms.

Abstract

Subclinical symptoms of depression are common in emerging adults. Anhedonia is one such symptom that specifically puts one at risk for developing clinical depression. Recently, important progress has been made in elucidating the underlying neurobiology of anhedonia. This progress rests on many experimental studies examining how subjects with depressive symptoms respond to anticipating and consuming rewarding stimuli. Translating these findings to real-life reward processing dynamics is an important next step in order to guide fine-tuning of preventive treatments. We propose that the Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) represents a useful tool in addressing this issue. ESM requires individuals to carry a device that beeps at semirandom moments, inviting them to fill out a short questionnaire on mood, context, and behavior. Using this methodology, we aimed to decompose the construct of reward processing into its daily life dynamics, by investigating how positive affect (PA), reward anticipation and active behavior influence each other over time. A group of emerging adults (aged 16-25) was included, of which two-thirds presented with subclinical depressive symptoms. Associations between PA, reward anticipation and active behavior manifested in the flow of daily life. Depressive symptoms were significantly associated with reduced time-lagged associations between reward anticipation and active behavior (β = -.005, p = .006) and active behavior and reward anticipation (β = -.002, p = .027). The moderating effect of depressive symptoms on the time-lagged association between reward anticipation and PA approached significance (β = -.002, p = .051). These findings represent an important step in translating experimental knowledge on reward processing into daily life processes. (PsycINFO Database Record

The dynamical signature of anhedonia in Major Depressive Disorder: Positive emotion dynamics, reactivity, and recovery

“…This finding is in line with that of Bakker et al [11], who also found no moderating effects of depressive symptoms on the association between active behavior and PA. However, Bakker et al [11] argued that this finding is in line with the mounting laboratory and neuroscientific studies that suggest depression affects anticipatory rather than the consummatory reward reactivity. One EMA study reported that MDD was associated with blunted reward responses in both the consummatory and anticipatory aspect of reward experience [32], but operationalized consummatory reward response not as the increase in PA in response to reward but as a lower rating of pleasurableness of [11] have put forward that behavioral engagement in rewarding activities are a better operationalization of rewards in daily life than positive events, because the subjective appraisal of a positive event rating is inextricably intertwined with PA. High PA could be the very reason that participants rate an event as positive.…”

“…However, Bakker et al [11] argued that this finding is in line with the mounting laboratory and neuroscientific studies that suggest depression affects anticipatory rather than the consummatory reward reactivity. One EMA study reported that MDD was associated with blunted reward responses in both the consummatory and anticipatory aspect of reward experience [32], but operationalized consummatory reward response not as the increase in PA in response to reward but as a lower rating of pleasurableness of [11] have put forward that behavioral engagement in rewarding activities are a better operationalization of rewards in daily life than positive events, because the subjective appraisal of a positive event rating is inextricably intertwined with PA. High PA could be the very reason that participants rate an event as positive. That we found the counterintuitive "mood brightening effects" with regards to Psychological Rewards but not Behavioral Rewards might attest this notion, although we cannot exclude that this difference arose from a suboptimal operationalization of Behavioral Rewards.…”

“…Explanations for this discrepancy often involve methodological differences 1 , such as controlling for the cross-level interaction between psychological problems and inertia while the difference in the autocorrelations of affect (i.e., the level of inertia) between the groups is non-significant (e.g., [2]), or how reward is measured (e.g., [11]). Bakker et al [11] have put forward that the discrepancy in findings might arise from the entanglement of events and the subjective appraisal of such, and the difference between depressed and non-depressed individuals in the nature of their selection for indicating (un)pleasant events, suggesting that behavioral engagement in rewarding activities may be a better operationalization of rewards in daily life than positive events.…”

Linking anhedonia symptoms with behavioural and neural reward responses in adolescent depression

“…Using this method to examine reward processing in young people (16 to 25 yrs.) with a range of depression symptoms, it was found that temporal associations between reward anticipation and both active behaviour and positive affect were reduced with increasing severity of depressive symptoms (measured with MADRS) [57]*. This work is important as it begins to address how different reward processes interact with each other in daily life, therefore improving upon the ecological validity of studies of reward processing in adolescent depression.…”

Dimensional Anhedonia and the Adolescent brain: Reward and Aversion Anticipation, Effort and Consummation: Anhedonia in adolescent depression

“…Low positive affect in adolescents is found to predict later depression 7 and anhedonia compared to irritability, has been found a hallmark of adolescent depression as it was associated with greater illness severity, depression episodes, episode duration, and suicidality 8 . Furthermore, recent studies on the relationship between the experience of reward anticipation and active behaviour, in everyday life, find that depression symptoms weaken this relationship in young people 9 . Taken together, anhedonia has been clearly identified as an important target for treatment and prevention in adolescent depression yet most studies assess anhedonia using just a few questions within other questionnaires such as the Beck Depression Inventory and do not provide a comprehensive understanding of the experience of anhedonia on a dimensional scale 10 .…”