GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO POSITIVE AFFECT: INSIGHTS FROM ADOLESCENT TWINS

Anhedonia in adolescents at transdiagnostic familial risk for severe mental illness: Clustering by symptoms and mechanisms of association with behavior

BACKGROUND

Anhedonia is a transdiagnostic symptom of severe mental illness (SMI) and emerges during adolescence. Possible subphenotypes and neural mechanisms of anhedonia in adolescents at risk for SMI are understudied.

METHODS

Adolescents at familial risk for SMI (N = 81) completed anhedonia (e.g., consummatory, anticipatory, social), demographic, and clinical measures and one year prior, a subsample (N = 46) completed fMRI scanning during a monetary reward task. Profiles were identified using k-means clustering of anhedonia type and differences in demographics, suicidal ideation, impulsivity, and emotional processes were examined. Moderation analyses were conducted to investigate whether levels of brain activation of reward regions moderated the relationships between anhedonia type and behaviors.

RESULTS

Two-clusters emerged: a high anhedonia profile (high-anhedonia), characterized by high levels of all types of anhedonia, (N = 32) and a low anhedonia profile (low-anhedonia), characterized by low levels of anhedonia types (N = 49). Adolescents in the high-anhedonia profile reported more suicidal ideation and negative affect, and less positive affect and desire for emotional closeness than low-anhedonia profile. Furthermore, more suicidal ideation, less positive affect, and less desire for emotional closeness differentiated the familial high-risk, high-anhedonia profile adolescents from the familial high-risk, low-anhedonia profile adolescents. Across anhedonia profiles, moderation analyses revealed that adolescents with high dmPFC neural activation in response to reward had positive relationships between social, anticipatory, and consummatory anhedonia and suicidal ideation.

LIMITATIONS

Small subsample with fMRI data.

CONCLUSION

Profiles of anhedonia emerge transdiagnostically and vary on clinical features. Anhedonia severity and activation in frontostriatal reward areas have value for clinically important outcomes such as suicidal ideation.

Listen to resonate: Better listening as a gateway to interpersonal positivity resonance through enhanced sensory connection and perceived safety

Although often experienced individually, emotions are at times co-experienced with others, collectively. One type of collective emotion, termed positivity resonance, refers to coexperienced positive affect accompanied by caring non-verbal behavioral synchrony and biological synchrony across persons. Growing evidence illustrates the contributions of positivity resonance to individual, relational, and community well-being. Two conditions theorized as conducive for the emergence of positivity resonance are real-time sensory connection and perceived safety. Here, we explore listening as an interpersonal process that can serve to enhance real-time sensory connection and perceived safety and thereby increase positivity resonance among conversation partners. Specifically, we present evidence that connects listening to direct gaze (i.e., real-time sensory connection) and psychological safety (i.e., perceived safety). We close by offering a framework to guide future research that can test whether and how conversational listening functions to create more moments of positivity resonance in interpersonal contexts.

Social anhedonia and other indicators of risk for schizophrenia: Theory and inquiry

In this commentary, the author traces theoretical contributions that fueled her interest in the role of social/interpersonal striving, relating, and enjoyment in terms of schizophrenia. Social anhedonia is discussed in the context of schizophrenia. The author reviews selective empirical evidence indicating that social anhedonia has a unique role in terms of risk for schizophrenia as well as schizophrenia outcome. Other risk indicators for adult schizophrenia-spectrum outcomes are briefly considered. The author discusses the measurement of social anhedonia across the lifespan and transdiagnostically. Finally, this commentary offers a critique of current strategies for risk calculation.

Social anhedonia in Malaysian schizophrenia patients and healthy participants

The reduced capacity for social and interpersonal interactions, social anhedonia, is an important aspect of various psychiatric disorders, especially schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. The goal of the present study was to validate a Malay translation of the adult version of the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS; Gooding and Pflum, 2014), a relatively short and easy to administer indirect measure of social anhedonia. This cross-sectional study included 95 (47 male, 48 female) schizophrenia patients and 300 (77 male, 223 female) healthy subjects. Participants were given Malay versions of the ACIPS, Snaith Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS-M), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-M). The ACIPS exhibited good internal consistency (Ordinal alpha = 0.966). Total ACIPS scores were inversely correlated with the BDI-M scores, and positively correlated with total SHAPS-M scores. Factor analysis yielded a three-factor solution which accounted for 52.06% of the variance. As expected, the schizophrenia patients scored significantly lower than the healthy community participants on the ACIPS, t(130) = 4.26, p < 0.001. The Malay translation of the ACIPS showed good concurrent validity and excellent internal consistency. Taken together, these data provide further validation for the utility of the ACIPS in a cross-cultural context.

Validation of the Korean Version of the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale in Non-help-seeking Individuals

The Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS) is a psychometric instrument that has been used to indirectly measure social anhedonia in many cross-cultural contexts, such as in Western (US), European (French, Spanish), Eastern (Chinese), and Israeli samples. However, little is known about the psychometric properties of the ACIPS in Korean samples. The primary goal of this study was to validate the Korean version of the ACIPS among non-help-seeking individuals. The sample consisted of 307 adult individuals who had no current or prior psychiatric history. Participants were administered the ACIPS, along with the Behavioral Inhibition and Behavioral Activation Scales (BIS/BAS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). We examined the association of the total ACIPS scores with the other measures. The ACIPS showed good internal consistency. We also explored the factor structure of the Korean translation of the ACIPS using principal component analysis with Promax rotation and Kaiser normalization. Factor analysis yielded a three-factor structure that accounted for 58.8% of the variance. The three-factor model included the following subdomains: interactions involving close relationships, casual interactions, and interactions involving family members. Total BAS and BIS scores were significantly associated with total ACIPS scores, while BDI scores were inversely associated with total ACIPS scores. The current research indicates that the Korean version of the ACIPS is a useful and valid scale. Future directions include using the Korean translation of the ACIPS to elucidate the varying degrees of hedonic capacity in psychiatric patients.