The role of anhedonia in predicting risk-taking behavior in university students.

There is a growing interest in understanding symptoms of psychological distress, such as anhedonia, not just as related to individual psychological disorders, but transdiagnostically. This broader focus allows for the investigation of the effects of symptoms across disorders, or in non-clinical samples. Previous work has linked anhedonia and risk-taking behavior in clinical samples, though the exploration of this relationship in healthy adolescents and early adults is still a relatively new area of research. The current study explored the relationship between variability in anhedonia and risk-taking behavior by breaking each into separable parts (i.e. anhedonia into deficits in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure; risk-taking into risk propensity, sub-optimal risky behavior, and response to punishment). A sample of 81 university students completed two Chapman scales of anhedonia, the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS), and the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Hierarchical linear regression analyses were completed to assess the predictive power of each anhedonia measure on each outcome measure on the BART. TEPS score significantly negatively predicted all three outcome measures, with anticipatory pleasure having more predictive power than consummatory pleasure. Physical anhedonia was also a significant predictor of sub-optimal risky behavior and response to punishment. These findings present a broader and more complex view of the associations between anhedonia and risk than have previously been reported, and merit further study to continue to elucidate how they are related to one another.

Socioemotional mechanisms of loneliness in subclinical psychosis.

Loneliness is an important predictor of physical and mental health in the general population and in individuals across the psychosis spectrum, including those experiencing subclinical psychotic-like experiences (PLEs). However, the mechanisms underlying loneliness in the psychosis spectrum are not well understood. Emotion processing deficits are well described across the psychosis spectrum, and socioemotional processing biases are critical for the development and maintenance of loneliness through altered social appraisal, including judgements of rejection. Therefore, we propose that PLEs are associated with increased loneliness, and the relationship is mediated by alterations in socioemotional processing. We also explored how this pathway may be affected by mood and anxiety symptoms, which have been associated with loneliness across the psychosis spectrum. As part of the Human Connectome Project, generally healthy adults (n = 1180) reported symptomatology and social functioning and completed the Penn Emotion Recognition Task to assess efficiency in identifying emotions. We found that higher reported PLEs were associated with elevated levels of loneliness and perceived rejection and that these factors were linked by multiple independent pathways. First, anxiety/depression and emotion processing efficiency independently mediated the PLE-loneliness relationship. Second, we found that the association between PLEs and loneliness was serially mediated through inefficient emotion recognition then higher levels of perceived rejection. These separable mechanisms of increased loneliness in subclinical psychosis have implications for treatment and continued study of social functioning in the psychosis spectrum.

Effects of Oxytocin on Emotion Recognition in Schizophrenia: A Randomized Double-Blind Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that leads to poor social function. Oxytocin (OXT), a neuropeptide involved in social cognition, is a potential therapeutic agent for alleviating social dysfunction. Therefore, we investigated the effects of intranasal oxytocin (IN-OXT) on emotional processes in experimental interactive social contexts in individuals with SCZ. METHODS: In a male-only parallel randomized placebo-controlled double-blind trial, we investigated the effects of IN-OXT (24 IU) on visual fixation on pictures of faces and emotion recognition in an interactive ball-tossing game that probed processing of social and nonsocial stimuli. RESULTS: Intranasal oxytocin enhanced the recognition of emotions during an emotion-based ball-tossing game. This improvement was specific to the game that included social cue processing. Intranasal oxytocin did not affect eye gaze duration or gaze dwell time on faces in these patients. CONCLUSIONS: An acute low dose of IN-OXT had a modest effect on social cue processing and was limited to emotion recognition. Higher doses and long-term trials targeting emotional processing in SCZ may lead to improved social function.

Adolescent Neurodevelopment and Vulnerability to Psychosis.

Adolescence is characterized by significant changes in several domains, including brain structure and function, puberty, and social and environmental factors. Some of these changes serve to increase the likelihood of psychosis onset during this period, while others may buffer this risk. This review characterizes our current knowledge regarding the unique aspects of adolescence that may serve as risk factors for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. In addition, we provide potential future directions for research into adolescent-specific developmental mechanisms that impart vulnerability to psychosis and the possibility of interventions that capitalize on adolescents' unique characteristics. Specifically, we explore the ways in which gray and white matter develop throughout adolescence in typically developing youth as well as in those with psychosis spectrum disorders. We also discuss current views on the function that social support and demands, as well as role expectations, play in risk for psychosis. We further highlight the importance of considering biological factors such as puberty and hormonal changes as areas of unique vulnerability for adolescents. Finally, we discuss cannabis use as a factor that may have a unique impact during adolescent neurodevelopment, and subsequently potentially impact psychosis onset. Throughout, we include discussion of resilience factors that may provide unique opportunities for intervention during this dynamic life stage.