Toward an objective characterization of an anhedonic phenotype: A signal-detection approach

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.11.026

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 57, Issue 4, 15 February 2005, Pages 319-327

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.11.026 Get rights and content

Background

Difficulties in defining and characterizing phenotypes has hindered progress in psychiatric genetics and clinical neuroscience. Decreased approach-related behavior and anhedonia (lack of responsiveness to pleasure) are considered cardinal features of depression, but few studies have used laboratory-based measures to objectively characterize these constructs.

Methods

To assess hedonic capacity in relation to depressive, particularly anhedonic, symptoms, 62 participants completed a signal-detection task based on a differential reinforcement schedule. Anhedonia was operationalized as decreased reward responsiveness.

Results

Unequal frequency of reward between two correct responses produced a response bias (i.e., a systematic preference to identify the stimulus paired with the more frequent reward). Subjects with elevated depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory scores ≥ 16) failed to show a response bias. Impaired reward responsiveness predicted higher anhedonic symptoms 1 month later, after controlling for general negative affectivity.

Conclusions

Impaired tendency to modulate behavior as a function of prior reinforcement might underline diminished hedonic capacity in depression. When applied to a clinical population, objective assessments of participants’ propensity to modulate behavior as a function of reward might provide a powerful tool for improving the phenotypic definition of depression and thus offer a reliable behavioral screening approach for neuroscience studies of depression.

Section snippets

Participants

Informed written consent was obtained from 62 undergraduate students (23 men, 39 women; aged 20.13 ± 2.50 years [mean ± SD]) recruited from introductory psychology courses at Harvard University. All participants were right-handed (Chapman and Chapman 1987), reported to be free of any past or present neurologic illness, and received either course credit or $5 for their participation. (Exploratory analyses revealed no differences in task performance, including response bias, between participants

Accuracy

The two-way ANOVA with Block and Condition as factors revealed a main effect of Condition [F(1,61) = 29.50, p < .001 (partial η²: .33)] and a significant Block × Condition interaction [F(2,122) = 4.43, p < .020 (ε: .87; partial η²: .07)]. As expected, accuracy for the rich condition was higher than for the lean condition (Figure 2A), and this difference increased over time [linear contrast of the interaction: F(1,61) = 5.98, p < .020]. Post hoc Newman-Keuls tests clarified that accuracy for the

Discussion

Rooted within a classic view that a stimulus is rewarding if it positively reinforces behavior (i.e., it reliably increases the likelihood of behavior [Hull 1943; Rescorla and Wagner 1972]), the goals of the present study were 1) to test the feasibility, convergent validity, and predictive validity of a laboratory-based measure of hedonic capacity based on a signal-detection approach; and 2) to test the hypothesis that elevated levels of depressive, particularly anhedonic, symptoms were

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Original articlesToward an objective characterization of an anhedonic phenotype: A signal-detection approach

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Participants

Accuracy

Discussion

Clin Psychol Rev

Biol Psychiatry

Brain Cogn

Behav Ther

Brain Cogn

J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry

Psychiatry Res

Trends Neurosci

J Affect Disord

Biol Psychiatry

Trends Neurosci

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Beck Depression Inventory Manual

Emotional experience and expression in schizophrenia and depression

J Abnorm Psychol

Depressive mood and estimates of reinforcement frequency

J Abnorm Psychol

Scales for physical and social anhedonia

J Abnorm Psychol

Physical anhedonia, perceptual aberration and psychosis proneness

Schizophr Bull

PsyScopeA new graphic interactive environment for designing psychology experiments

Behav Res Methods Instrum Comput

Anterior electrophysiological asymmetries, emotion, and depressionConceptual and methodological conundrums

Psychophysiology

Neurobehavioral aspects of affective disorders

Annu Rev Psychol

Differences between anhedonic and normally hedonic depressive states

Am J Psychiatry

Emotional imagery and physical anhedonia

Psychophysiology

Self-reinforcement and depression in interpersonal interactionThe role of performance level

J Abnorm Psychol

Frontal EEG alpha asymmetry, depression, and cognitive functioning

Cognition Emotion

The endophenotype concept in psychiatryEtymology and strategic intentions

Am J Psychiatry

Signal Detection Theory and Psychophysics

Discovering endophenotypes for major depression

Neuropsychopharmacology

Left frontal hypoactivation in depression

J Abnorm Psychol

Original articles
Toward an objective characterization of an anhedonic phenotype: A signal-detection approach