A transdiagnostic meta-analysis of physical and social Anhedonia in major depressive disorder and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

INTRODUCTION: Anhedonia is a transdiagnostic construct conceptualized as physical or social, however, the extent to which these subtypes differ across psychotic and mood pathology remains poorly understood. We aimed to quantify the severity of physical and social anhedonia across Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder (SSDs). METHODS: We conducted meta-analyses of the Chapman Physical and Social Anhedonia Scales (PAS;SAS). We reviewed data from participants with MDD, and SSDs separately. RESULTS: Our first meta-analysis (n = 8 studies, 409 participants) with MDD revealed elevated SAS and PAS in MDD compared to controls. Within-group differences were not significant. Depressive symptom severity moderated the between-group effect of PAS. Our second meta-analysis (n = 44 studies, 3352 participants) revealed elevated SAS and PAS in SSDs compared to controls. We detected a moderate difference between the SAS and PAS within the SSD group. Age moderated within-group differences of SAS and PAS. DISCUSSION: People with SSD or MDD experience elevated SAS and PAS compared to controls. People with SSDs endorse greater challenges experiencing social rewards relative to physical rewards. People with MDD experience social and physical rewards similarly. The moderating role of depressive symptoms in MDD suggests that physical anhedonia is more state-like than social anhedonia.

Empathy Mind-Set Moderates the Association Between Low Empathy and Social Aggression.

Empathy plays an important role in creating and maintaining adaptive interpersonal relationships. Accordingly, existing studies often report a negative correlation between empathy and interpersonal aggression. However, findings are sometimes inconsistent, and concerns have been raised about the size of the overall effect. Here, we examined the potential moderating role of empathy mind-sets-beliefs about the malleability of empathy. We hypothesized that the association between low empathy and aggression would be especially strong if individuals also believed that their levels of empathy were unchangeable (i.e., they endorsed a fixed mind-set about empathy); in contrast, a belief that empathy was malleable may weaken the association. Results supported this hypothesis, such that individuals with low levels of empathy were less likely to report aggression-social aggression in particular-if they also believed that empathy was changeable. These results point to a role for beliefs about the malleability of empathy as an important moderator and may point to ways to enhance empathy interventions by targeting mind-sets.

Imaging the "social brain" in schizophrenia: A systematic review of neuroimaging studies of social reward and punishment.

Decreased social functioning and high levels of loneliness and social isolation are common in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), contributing to reduced quality of life. One key contributor to social impairment is low social motivation, which may stem from aberrant neural processing of socially rewarding or punishing stimuli. To summarize research on the neurobiology of social motivation in SSD, we performed a systematic literature review of neuroimaging studies involving the presentation of social stimuli intended to elicit feelings of reward and/or punishment. Across 11 studies meeting criteria, people with SSD demonstrated weaker modulation of brain activity in regions within a proposed social interaction network, including prefrontal, cingulate, and striatal regions, as well as the amygdala and insula. Firm conclusions regarding neural differences in SSD in these regions, as well as connections within networks, are limited due to conceptual and methodological inconsistencies across the available studies. We conclude by making recommendations for the study of social reward and punishment processing in SSD in future research.