Schedule of Events | Symposia

Anhedonic Features in Effort-Related Reward Processing

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Harold Rocha¹ (harochapsych@gmail.com), John Shuford¹, Bradley Buchanan¹, Peter Clayson¹; ¹University of South Florida

Emerging evidence suggests that distinct stages of reward processing uniquely contribute to psychological traits linked to anhedonia, a core mood-disorder symptom characterized by diminished enjoyment of pleasure. However, the relationship between reward-processing stages and dispositional traits related to mood and anhedonia remains unclear. The present study investigated interindividual reward processing differences in a healthy college sample (n = 83) using self-report measures and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) indexing anticipatory and consummatory subprocesses across high- and low-effort conditions using a recently developed effort-doors task. The goal of the study was to expand our understanding of the temporal-dynamics of effort-related reward processing by incorporating mood-related traits as predictors using an incremental model comparison approach. Consistent with the original effort-doors study, P3 component in response to an effort-termination cue (cue-P3) was greater following high effort, and feedback stimulus preceding negativity (SPN) was larger following low effort. Unlike the original study, Reward Positivity (RewP) scores reflected effort-related reward discounting, consistent with Expected Value of Control (EVC) theory, while feedback-P3 yielded no statistically significant experimental effects. Surprisingly, anticipatory pleasure (TEPS-AP) negatively correlated with RewP, suggesting reduced feedback engagement in those with greater reward anticipation, and cue-P3 negatively correlating with depressive symptoms, indicating heightened salience of effort in those with mood-related traits. These findings provide evidence for EVC-like reward discounting in ERPs related to effort and interindividual differences tied to reward anticipation and mood.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control