Dissociating Components of Anhedonia: A Pilot fMRI Study

Summary

Anhedonia, decreased motivation for and sensitivity to rewarding experiences, is present in at least 1/3 of community dwelling older adults and is a feature of various psychiatric and neurological disorders, including late-life depression and Parkinson's disease. Anhedonia is associated with cognitive deficits, as well as poor clinical outcomes and increased mortality. Recent research suggests that anhedonia comprises motivational (reward "wanting") and consummatory (reward "liking") aspects. However, previous research on anhedonia has failed to dissociate these components, which may explain the contradictory findings in the literature. Recently, the Effort-Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT) was developed in an effort to dissociate reward components in anhedonia. The EEfRT is an effort-based decision-making task that measures reward "wanting", in contrast to commonly used anhedonia questionnaires, which focus on reward "liking." This novel task may provide a useful measure of components of anhedonia in older adults and in different patient populations. Thus far no data is available on this task in elderly individuals, and the cognitive and neural correlates of components of the task have not been investigated. Given the paucity of research on the neurobiology of anhedonia, cognitive neuroscience studies using this task could fill a gap in the literature. The investigators are developing a line of cognitive neuroscience studies examining anhedonia in community-dwelling older adults and in late-life depression and Parkinson's disease. This study will involve gathering pilot behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in young and older adults performing the EEfRT task. Understanding the brain mechanisms underlying anhedonia in older adults and in different patient populations will have a translational impact by elucidating biological targets for treatment.

Conditions

• Anhedonia

Interventions

OTHER

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Both groups will have the fMRI performed once. The fMRI will be use to to dissociate activity associated with both reward "wanting" and reward "liking" using the EEfRT. Learning more about the brain basis of components of anhedonia in both young and older adults is important in the context of previous research showing that risk-taking behavior and reward sensitivity changes with age, enhancing the knowledge of anhedonia.

OTHER

Effort-Expenditure for Rewards Task

Both groups with have the EEfRT performed once. The EEfRT is an effort-based decision-making task that measures reward "wanting", in contrast to commonly used anhedonia questionnaires, which focus on reward "liking." This novel task may provide a useful measure of components of anhedonia in older adults and in different patient populations.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Florida

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Adam J Woods, Ph.D. · University of Florida

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-02-29

Primary Completion

2018-05-08

Completion

2018-05-08

Countries

• United States

Study Locations