A Neurophysiological Measure of Reward Sensitivity and its Limited Association with Anhedonia in Adolescents and Young Adults

Anhedonia (i.e., the attenuated ability to enjoy pleasurable stimuli) characterizes multiple mood disorders, but its neurophysiological underpinnings are not yet clear. Here, we measured event-related potentials in 116 adolescents and young adults engaged in a signal detection task designed to objectively characterize the anhedonic phenotype. In line with previous studies, the behavioral results showed that approximately 35% of the sample did not develop a response bias towards the more frequently rewarded stimuli (a sign of low hedonic capacity). The event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by the reward feedback stimuli delivered during the task showed that individuals that did not develop a response bias had significantly less cortical positivity at Fz from 224 ms to 316 ms post feedback onset compared to those that developed a response bias during the task. However, further analyses showed that this between groups difference was relatively weak, as it disappeared when we controlled for response-locked ERPs. Furthermore, the response bias observed in the signal detection task was not strongly associated with self-reported ratings of hedonic capacity. We conclude that even though the signal detection task may be used as a reward sensitivity measure in neurotypical adolescents and young adults, this task may only be able to detect clinically significant levels of anhedonia in this particular population.