Aberrant Asociality: How Individual Differences in Social Anhedonia Illuminate the Need to Belong

Orbitofrontal and striatal metabolism, volume, thickness and structural connectivity in relation to social anhedonia in depression: A multimodal study

BACKGROUND

Social anhedonia is common within major depressive disorder (MDD) and associated with worse treatment outcomes. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is implicated in both reward (medial OFC) and punishment (lateral OFC) in social decision making. Therefore, to understand the biology of social anhedonia in MDD, medial/lateral OFC metabolism, volume, and thickness, as well as structural connectivity to the striatum, amygdala, and ventral tegmental area/nucleus accumbens were examined. A positive relationship between social anhedonia and these neurobiological outcomes in the lateral OFC was hypothesized, whereas an inverse relationship was hypothesized for the medial OFC. The association between treatment-induced changes in OFC neurobiology and depression improvement were also examined.

METHODS

85 medication-free participants diagnosed with MDD were assessed with Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales to assess social anhedonia and received pretreatment simultaneous fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including structural and diffusion. Participants were then treated in an 8-week randomized placebo-controlled double-blind course of escitalopram. PET/MRI were repeated following treatment. Metabolic rate of glucose uptake was quantified from dynamic FDG-PET frames using Patlak graphical analysis. Structure (volume and cortical thickness) was quantified from structural MRI using Freesurfer. To assess structural connectivity, probabilistic tractography was performed on diffusion MRI and average FA was calculated within the derived tracts. Linear mixed models with Bonferroni correction were used to examine the relationships between variables.

RESULTS

A significantly negative linear relationship between pretreatment social anhedonia score and structural connectivity between the medial OFC and the amygdala (estimated coefficient: -0.006, 95 % CI: -0.0108 - -0.0012, p-value = 0.0154) was observed. However, this finding would not survive multiple comparisons correction. No strong evidence existed to show a significant linear relationship between pretreatment social anhedonia score and metabolism, volume, thickness, or structural connectivity to any of the regions examined. There was also no strong evidence to suggest significant linear relationships between improvement in depression and percent change in these variables.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on these multimodal findings, the OFC likely does not underlie social anhedonia in isolation and therefore should not be the sole target of treatment for social anhedonia. This is consistent with previous reports that other areas of the brain such as the amygdala and the striatum are highly involved in this behavior. Relatedly, amygdala-medial OFC structural connectivity could be a future target. The results of this study are crucial as, to our knowledge, they are the first to relate structure/function of the OFC with social anhedonia severity in MDD. Future work may need to involve a whole brain approach in order to develop therapeutics for social anhedonia.

College Student Alcohol Use: Understanding the Role of Alcohol Expectancies, Social Anxiety, Social Connectedness, and Need to Belong

ObjectiveCollege students consume more alcohol and engage in binge drinking more frequently than their non-college attending peers, and prevalence of alcohol-related consequences (e.g., drinking and driving; taking avoidable risks) has not decreased proportionally with decreases in consumption. Social anxiety and alcohol expectancies, or beliefs about the effects of alcohol, have been found to be significantly related to alcohol use and account for significant variance in alcohol use and related consequences. Few studies, however, have examined how other social variables such as need to belong and social connectedness may fit into existing models of increased and risky alcohol use. Methods: Students at a large state university (n = 1,278) completed an online survey measuring alcohol expectancies, need to belong, social anxiety, and social connectedness. Mean age of participants was 19.65 years, and 59.5% self-identified as female, 39.8% male, and 0.7% identified as transgender. Structural equation modeling supported hypothesized relationships between need to belong, social anxiety, social connectedness, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol use, a mean centered variable that included binge drinking, drinking frequency, and amount of consumption. Results: Positive alcohol expectancies related to tension reduction, sociability, and sexuality, were positively related to drinking, such that increased alcohol expectancies were associated with increased drinking. Alcohol expectancies mediated the relationship between need to belong and increased alcohol use, as well as social connectedness and increased alcohol use. Similarly, social anxiety also mediated these relationships. No direct relationships were found between need to belong or social connectedness and alcohol use, suggesting previous research exploring these relationships may have excluded control variables (e.g., biological sex, race/ethnicity) that better explain the impact of need to belong and social connectedness on alcohol use. Conclusion: Prevention and intervention efforts might be more effective in reducing alcohol use if social factors are more broadly targeted.

Anhedonia and impulsivity in college alcohol use: A path analysis

OBJECTIVE

Alcohol use is a substantial problem among college students and has several negative consequences. The current study examined the associations between anhedonia and alcohol use and related problems via impulsive behavior (e.g., negative urgency, sensation seeking). We parsed anhedonia into four specific facets: consummatory, anticipatory, recreational, and social anhedonia.

PARTICIPANTS

Six hundred and forty college students aged 18-25 were included in the final analysis.

METHOD

Data were collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Self-report inventories assessing for anhedonia, alcohol use, impulsive behavior, and depressed mood were utilized.

RESULTS

Recreational consummatory anhedonia was negatively associated with alcohol use and alcohol-related problems through negative urgency. Recreational consummatory anhedonia also had significant negative associations with alcohol consumption via sensation seeking. Further, social anticipatory anhedonia was positively associated with alcohol use and related problems via negative urgency.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights important associations between anhedonia, impulsivity, and alcohol use and related problems.

Approaches to Studying and Improving Social Motivation in Schizophrenia

Social motivation impairments, or "asociality," have long been considered a core clinical feature of schizophrenia. Although the prevalence and pervasive negative impact of poor social motivation is well-documented, our understanding is limited regarding causal mechanisms. Advances in definition, conceptualization, and characterization are needed to inform research aimed at understanding these mechanisms and developing effective interventions. This theme issue is intended to accelerate efforts to study and treat social motivation in schizophrenia by synthesizing the current knowledge and providing new frameworks to guide future research in this area.

Social anhedonia affects the trajectory of internet addiction in the college students: A latent growth curve analysis

BACKGROUND/AIM

There is growing awareness that anhedonia plays a critical role in the development of Internet Addictions (IA). However, anhedonia is a multidimensional construct and different aspects of anhedonia may exert different effects on IA. This study was designed to distinguish the effects of social anhedonia and physical anhedonia on the developmental trajectory of IA among college students.

METHODS

A total of 3577 Chinese college freshmen (M_age = 18.01, SD = 0.77; 65.4 % girls) participated in a 2-year, four waves longitudinal tracking study. The latent growth curve model (LGCM) was constructed to examine the impacts of different types of anhedonia on the developmental trajectories of IA. Gender was also added to the conditional LGCM as time-invariant variable.

RESULTS

The results of unconditional LGCM showed a U-shape developmental trajectory of IA. Social anhedonia significantly affected the intercept (β = 0.468, p < 0.001) and significantly affected the linear slope (β = -0.259, p < 0.05), but not the quadratic slope (β = 0.293, p > 0.05). Physical anhedonia was not significantly associated with intercept, linear slope and quadratic slope. There was no sex difference in both initial levels and change rate of IA.

CONCLUSIONS

Social anhedonia while not physical anhedonia has prediction effect on IA. College students with high levels of social anhedonia experienced high levels of IA at baseline, and performed a slower rate in downward trend of IA. The findings of the current study provide implications for prevention of IA in college students.

Social Anhedonia and Intergroup Processes: A Multi-Study Investigation of Known and Novel Group Memberships

Introduction: Group memberships play an important role in promoting psychological well-being and supporting social functioning. However, studies suggest that individuals with social anhedonia, a characteristic defined by limited pleasure from social bonds, may show abnormalities in their desire to cultivate positive feelings, such as belongingness, from social groups. Still, these abnormalities have not been studied in the context of intergroup processes, leaving the relation between social anhedonia and subjective evaluations of group memberships unclear. Methods: Across three studies (Ns = 124-659), we examined associations between social anhedonia and affective and cognitive attitudes about different types of ingroups and outgroups using self-report and behavioral measures. Results: Taken together, results indicate that social anhedonia is associated with less positive and more negative feelings and beliefs about most ingroups and outgroups from everyday life, as well as negatively biased stereotyping of many prominent social groups. At the same time, individuals with either extremely high or low levels of social anhedonia did not report significantly different intergroup attitudes when group memberships were experimentally manipulated in a minimal group setting. Discussion: Overall, these findings suggest that social anhedonia is associated with less positive and more negative subjective evaluations of long-established, real-world ingroups, but not of a newly formed ingroup that requires little motivation or social engagement to maintain group membership. Aberrant feelings and attitudes toward one's ingroups are consistent with the theory that social anhedonia is related to anomalies in the need to belong within social groups from everyday life and could inform psychosocial interventions for related psychopathologies.

Preliminary evidence that fatigue contributes to anhedonia in stable individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia

OBJECTIVES

Anhedonia and fatigue are trans-diagnostic symptoms commonly observed in schizophrenia. Anhedonia is a core negative symptom with a strong relationship with depression and is associated with diminished global functioning. Similarly, fatigue is also associated to depression and research across psychiatric illnesses indicate that fatigue may persist even when primary symptoms are treated. Although fatigue is common in people diagnosed with schizophrenia, it is under studied within this population. The objective of this exploratory study was to investigate the association of fatigue and anhedonia by controlling for depression in a sample of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia.

METHOD

Fifty-one stable individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia from the University Department of Adult Psychiatry in Montpellier took part in this study. Participants completed questionnaires on fatigue impact and depression, and were assessed for symptom severity. Following data collection, statistical analyses were conducted in order to explore associations between clinical variables and fatigue impact. Based on the results obtained, a hierarchical linear regression was conducted in order to investigate whether fatigue impact contributed to the variance of negative symptoms.

RESULTS

The hierarchical linear regression indicated that when controlling for depression, fatigue impact contributes to ~20% of the variance of anhedonia. Together the social impact of fatigue and depression contribute to 24% of the variation of anhedonia.

CONCLUSION

To the best of our knowledge, this exploratory study is the first to investigate and show that fatigue impact may contribute to anhedonia. We recommend further research to investigate fatigue, its impact on symptomatology, and better categorization of negative symptoms in hopes of developing targeted fatigue treatment interventions.

Decoupling between hub-connected functional connectivity of the social brain network and real-world social network in individuals with social anhedonia

Altered hub regions in brain network have been consistently reported in patients with schizophrenia. However, it is unclear whether similar altered hub regions of the brain would be exhibited in individuals with subclinical features of schizophrenia such as social anhedonia (SA). In this study, we examined the hub regions of resting-state social brain network (SBN) of 35 participants with SA and 50 healthy controls (HC). We further examined the prediction effect of hub-connected FCs with SBN on the real-life social network characteristics. Our findings showed that the right amygdala, left temporal lobe and right media superior frontal gyrus were the hub regions of SBN both in SA and HC groups. In the SA group, the left temporal lobe connected functional connectivity (FC) did not predict social network characteristics, while the other FCs strengthened the association with social network characteristics. These findings were replicated in an independent sample of 33 SA and 32 HC. These findings suggested that the left temporal lobe as one of the hub regions of SBN exhibited the abnormality of their connected FCs in the association with social network characteristics in individuals with SA.

Loneliness, positive, negative and disorganised Schizotypy before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Loneliness is common in psychosis and occurs along a continuum. Here we investigate inter-relationships between loneliness, three-dimensional schizotypy, and depressive symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sample included 507 university students (48.3% participated before and 51.7% during the COVID-19 pandemic) who completed the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale-Brief, the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms depression scale and the University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness Scale. Schizotypy and depression scores were regressed onto loneliness individually and in multiple regressions.

The cohorts did not differ in any of the schizotypy domains (all p > .29). Depressive symptoms (p = .05) and loneliness (p = .006) were higher during the pandemic than before. Across cohorts, loneliness was significantly associated with positive (β = 0.23, p < .001), negative (β = 0.44, p < .001), and disorganised schizotypy (β = 0.44, p < .001), and with depression (β = 0.72, p < .001). Schizotypy together explained a significant amount of variance in loneliness (R² = 0.26), with significant associations with positive (β = −0.09, p = .047), negative (β = 0.31, p < .001) and disorganised schizotypy (β = 0.34, p < .001). When depression was included (β = 0.69, p < .001), only positive (β = −0.09, p = .008) and negative schizotypy (β = 0.22, p < .001) significantly predicted loneliness.

When all schizotypy dimensions and depression were considered together, only negative schizotypy and depression significantly predicted loneliness. Loneliness and depressive symptoms were higher during the pandemic, but this did not relate to cohort differences in schizotypy.

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Loneliness is uniquely associated with negative schizotypy and depression, but not disorganised schizotypy.

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Certain aspects of positive schizotypy may protect against loneliness.

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Loneliness and depressive symptoms were higher in students during the COVID-19 pandemic than before.

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Cohorts of students assessed before and during the pandemic showed similar levels of schizotypy.

Negative schizotypy attenuates the effect of momentary stress on social dysfunction related to COVID-19 social distancing

Schizotypy is associated with a broad range of motivational and social dysfunctions. However, there is reason to suspect that negative schizotypy may limit social dysfunction in specific contexts that typically increase isolation and loneliness. We analyzed whether positive, negative and disorganized facets of schizotypy would mitigate detrimental reactions to stress in the context of a global stressor (the COVID-19 pandemic) that has widely necessitated social and physical isolation. Responses to two measures of schizotypy were compared to ecological momentary assessments of social dysfunction for 85 undergraduates using multilevel modelling techniques. Negative schizotypy moderated the relation between momentary stress and loss of social support, such that negative schizotypy limited the magnitude of social dysfunction stemming from increases in momentary stress. This pattern was not seen for other facets of schizotypy. Implications for the treatment and measurement of schizotypy symptoms are discussed.

Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Is a Possible Blood Biomarker of Schizoid Personality Traits among Females

Lower serum levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) have been suggested to indicate higher suicide risk and various psychiatric symptoms. Previously, we reported that lower serum LDL-C levels are associated with loneliness, social phobia, isolated life with little social support, and lower trust in others among young non-clinical females. Thus, we hypothesize that schizoid personality traits may be associated with lower serum LDL-C. We here verified this hypothesis using non-clinical data and clinical data with schizophrenia. Using the database from the Midlife in Japan (MIDJA), a cohort of residents living in Tokyo, we analyzed whether schizoid-related interpersonal characteristics were associated with LDL-C. In addition, we assessed the association between blood biomarkers including LDL-C and schizoid personality traits in 101 adult non-clinical volunteers. Finally, we evaluated the interaction between LDL-C and social decision making of patients with schizophrenia. In female non-clinical volunteers, serum LDL-C level was a predictive factor and negatively correlated with schizoid personality traits. Female patients with schizophrenia, whose serum LDL-C levels were lower, tended not to trust other females. The present findings suggest that LDL-C may influence schizoid personality traits in females, which provide a basis for further investigation into the biological aspects of schizoid personality disorder.

Are people with social anxiety disorder happier alone?

Quality contact with other people serves as a reliable mood enhancement strategy. We wondered if the emotional benefits of socializing are present even for those with a psychological disorder defined by social distress and avoidance: social anxiety disorder (SAD). We conducted two ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies and analyzed 7243 total surveys. In both studies, community adults diagnosed with SAD and healthy controls received five surveys each day for 2 weeks. Consistent with research on positivity deficits in SAD, between-person analyses in both studies suggest that, on average, participants with SAD reported lower positive and higher negative affect in social and non-social situations than healthy controls. Within-person analyses, however, revealed that in both studies participants with SAD and healthy controls reported higher positive affect when with others than when alone; no differences were found for negative affect for those with SAD. The difference in positive affect between social and nonsocial situations was smaller for participants with SAD in Study 1, suggesting that people with SAD may experience diminished reward responding when socializing. Our results suggest that even those with a mental illness defined by interpersonal distress can and do derive positive emotions from social interactions.

Social reinforcement learning as a predictor of real-life experiences in individuals with high and low depressive symptomatology

BACKGROUND

Several studies have reported diminished learning from non-social outcomes in depressed individuals. However, it is not clear how depression impacts learning from social feedback. Notably, mood disorders are commonly associated with deficits in social functioning, which raises the possibility that potential impairments in social learning may negatively affect real-life social experiences in depressed subjects.

METHODS

Ninety-two participants with high (HD; N = 40) and low (LD; N = 52) depression scores were recruited. Subjects performed a learning task, during which they received monetary outcomes or social feedback which they were told came from other people. Additionally, participants answered questions about their everyday social experiences. Computational models were fit to the data and model parameters were related to social experience measures.

RESULTS

HD subjects reported a reduced quality and quantity of social experiences compared to LD controls, including an increase in the amount of time spent in negative social situations. Moreover, HD participants showed lower learning rates than LD subjects in the social condition of the task. Interestingly, across all participants, reduced social learning rates predicted higher amounts of time spent in negative social situations, even when depression scores were controlled for.

CONCLUSION

These findings indicate that deficits in social learning may affect the quality of everyday social experiences. Specifically, the impaired ability to use social feedback to appropriately update future actions, which was observed in HD subjects, may lead to suboptimal interpersonal behavior in real life. This, in turn, may evoke negative feedback from others, thus bringing about more unpleasant social encounters.

Developmental antecedents of social anhedonia: The roles of early temperament and sex

Social anhedonia is well established as a transdiagnostic factor, but little is known about its development. This study examined whether temperament and parenting in early childhood predict social anhedonia in early adolescence. We also explored whether the relationships between early predictors and social anhedonia are moderated by a child's sex. A community sample of children participated in laboratory observations of temperament and parenting practices at age 3 (n = 275). The participants returned at age 12 and completed the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale-Child Version (ACIPS-C). Our results indicated that, at age 3, lower observed sociability predicted higher levels of social anhedonia at age 12. These associations were moderated by child sex, such that males with diminished sociability reported greater social anhedonia. These findings indicate that predictors of early adolescent social anhedonia are evident as early as 3 years of age. However, these effects were evident only for males, suggesting that the pathways to social anhedonia in early adolescence differ as a function of sex.

Love is a physiological motivation (like hunger, thirst, sleep or sex)

The multitude of terms associated with love has given rise to a false perception of love. In this paper, only maternal and romantic love are considered. Love is usually regarded as a feeling, motivation, addiction, passion, and, above all, an emotion. This confusion has consequences in the lives of human beings, leading not only to divorces, suicides, femicides but possibly also to a number of mental illnesses and suffering. Therefore, it is crucial to first clarify what is meant by emotion, motivation and love. This work aims to finally place love within the category of physiological motivations, such as hunger, thirst, sleep, or sex, on the basis that love is also essential for human survival, especially in childhood. Love is presented from an evolutionary perspective. Some other similarities between love and other physiological motivations are pointed out, such as its importance for appropriate human development, both its ontogeny and its permanence, and the long-lasting consequences of abuse and neglect. There are summarized reasons that account for this, such as the fact that physiological motivations are essential for survival and that love is an essential motivation for the survival of human offspring. Other reasons are that minimum changes in the quantity and quality of love alters development, that there can be a variety of neurophysiological and behavioural states within a motivation, and that motivations (also love) appear and change throughout development. Also, motivations and love sometimes may lead to an addictive behaviour. Finally, it is recognized that once physiological motivations (and love) appear, they become permanent. In a third section, some potential social, cultural, clinical and scientific consequences of the proposed consideration of love as a motivation are discussed. Accordingly, love's recognition as a motivation in the clinical field would imply a better understanding of its disorders and its inclusion in classifications manuals such as The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), or in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Considering love as a motivation rather than an emotion could also impact the results of scientific research (an example is included). A comprehensive understanding of these questions could potentially allow for a new therapeutic approach in the treatment of mental illness, while offering an all-inclusive evolutionary explanation of cultural phenomena such as the origin and diffusion of both language and art. Love should be understood as a physiological motivation, like hunger, sleep or sex, and not as an emotion as it is commonly considered.

Affective forecasting and accuracy in social anhedonia: Predicted and experienced emotion for a social interaction

OBJECTIVE

Previous research suggests people with social anhedonia (SocAnh) exhibit deficits in anticipated pleasure for social stimuli relative to controls. However, previous research has relied on hypothetical social stimuli and has focused on anticipated pleasure without examining negative affect.

METHOD

Participants were informed that they would complete an "enjoyable" sharing task with a peer and were asked to forecast positive and negative affect during the interaction. After the interaction, participants reported their experienced emotions.

RESULTS

We found SocAnh and controls anticipated and experienced similar levels of positive affect and that both groups underpredicted positive affect. The SocAnh group anticipated and experienced more negative affect than controls and was more accurate in forecasting negative affect.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to show that SocAnh is associated with the heightened anticipation of negative affect and that experiencing heightened negative affect during social interactions could drive reduced motivation and desire to engage in future social interaction.

A Transdiagnostic Perspective on Social Anhedonia

Humans are highly social beings, yet people with social anhedonia experience reduced interest in or reward from social situations. Social anhedonia is a key facet of schizotypal personality, an important symptom of schizophrenia, and increasingly recognized as an important feature in a range of other psychological disorders. However, to date, there has been little examination of the similarities and differences in social anhedonia across diagnostic borders. Here, our goal was to conduct a selective review of social anhedonia in different psychological and life course contexts, including the psychosis continuum, depressive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, and autism spectrum disorders, along with developmental and neurobiological factors. Current evidence suggests that the nature and expression of social anhedonia vary across psychological disorders with some groups showing deficient learning about, enjoyment from, and anticipation of the pleasurable aspects of social interactions, while for others, some of these components appear to remain intact. However, study designs and methodologies are diverse, the roles of developmental and neurobiological factors are not routinely considered, and direct comparisons between diagnostic groups are rare-which prevents a more nuanced understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved. Future studies, parsing the wanting, liking, and learning components of social reward, will help to fill gaps in the current knowledge base. Consistent across disorders is diminished pleasure from social situations, subsequent withdrawal, and poorer social functioning in those who express social anhedonia. Nonetheless, feelings of loneliness often remain, which suggests the need for social connection is not entirely absent. Adolescence is a particularly important period of social and neural development and may provide a valuable window on the developmental origins of social anhedonia. Adaptive social functioning is key to recovery from mental health disorders; therefore, understanding the intricacies of social anhedonia will help to inform treatment and prevention strategies for a range of diagnostic categories.

Lonely at the Top: How Do Senior Leaders Navigate the Need to Belong?

Despite the considerable literature on leadership, very little research explores how leaders experience their role, especially in senior-level positions. This study examines the socioemotional costs of being a high-ranking leader in a corporate context. In-depth interviews with C-suite executives were conducted revealing that loneliness is a professional hazard. Top executives are more prone to be lonely due to the pressures of the role: increased social distance, lack of social support, and exhaustion related to the role. Two ongoing conflicts in the position (Role vs. Person and Distance vs. Closeness) and four coping strategies were identified (mental and physical disconnection, healthy lifestyle, support from one’s network, and affecting and influencing others). Finally, the research revealed that some organizational conditions could also increase the risk of loneliness at the top (e.g., high–power distance culture). This study provides an empirical foundation to manage top executives’ behavior and well-being. Leaders and HR practitioners should raise awareness and take action to contribute to senior managers’ welfare, and ultimately, to organizational success.

Does the Social Functioning Scale reflect real-life social functioning? An experience sampling study in patients with a non-affective psychotic disorder and healthy control individuals

BACKGROUND

The ecological validity of retrospective measures of social functioning is currently unknown in patients with schizophrenia. In the present study, patients with a diagnosis of non-affective psychosis were compared with controls on two measures of social functioning: the Social Functioning Scale (SFS) and daily-life measures collected with the Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM). The associations between both measures were examined in each group of participants to test for the ecological validity of the SFS.

METHODS

A total of 126 participants with a non-affective psychotic disorder and 109 controls completed the SFS and a 6-day momentary ESM protocol assessing various aspects of social functioning. Multiple linear and multilevel regression analyses were performed to test for group differences in social functioning level and examine associations between the two assessment techniques.

RESULTS

Lower social functioning was observed in patients compared with controls on retrospective and momentary measures. The SFS interpersonal domain (social engagement/withdrawal and interpersonal behaviour dimensions) was associated with the percentage of time spent alone and negative appraisal of social interactions. The SFS activity domain (pro-social and recreational activities dimensions) was negatively associated with time spent in leisure activities.

CONCLUSIONS

The SFS showed some degree of ecological validity at assessing broad aspects of social functioning. Low scores on the SFS social engagement/withdrawal and interpersonal behaviour dimensions captured social isolation and social avoidance in daily life, but not lack of interest in socializing. Ecological validity of the SFS activity domain was low. ESM offers a rich alternative to classical assessment techniques of social functioning.

[A history and overview of anhedonia in endogenous mental disorders]

Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure. This disorder is heterogeneous across psychiatric disorders and is difficult for measuring and submitting to scientific analysis. Over the last several decades there has been increasing interest in the role that anhedonia plays in various psychopathologies. This article reviews the recent literature on anhedonia and its psychopathological features, which are important for prognosis in affective disorders and schizophrenia. Attempts to dissect various subtypes of anhedonia observed in negative syndrome and depression are reviewed as well.

The Predictive Value of the NEO-FFI Items: Parsing the Nature of Social Anhedonia Using the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale and the ACIPS

The goal was to examine the nature of social anhedonia using two validated measures and study their relationship to scores on the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Nearly 1,900 college-aged participants completed the Chapman Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (RSAS), Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS), and the NEO-FFI. Although both the RSAS and ACIPS were associated with the NEO-FFI domains of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism, linear regression analyses revealed that the RSAS and ACIPS were differentially predicted by NEO-FFI item clusters. The RSAS scores were predicted by Sociability, Nonantagonistic Orientation, Positive Affect, and Activity item clusters. The ACIPS scores were predicted by Sociability, Prosocial Orientation, Activity, and Positive Affect item clusters in addition to gender. In summary, it appears that social anhedonia is multidimensional, associated with various personality domains encompassing social approach and withdrawal.

Measuring Social Motivation Using Signal Detection and Reward Responsiveness

Background

Recent trends in psychiatry have emphasized the need for a shift from categorical to dimensional approaches. Of critical importance to this transformation is the availability of tools to objectively quantify behaviors dimensionally. The present study focuses on social motivation, a dimension of behavior that is central to a range of psychiatric conditions but for which a particularly small number of assays currently exist.

Methods

In Study 1 (N = 48), healthy adults completed a monetary reward task and a social reward task, followed by completion of the Chapman Physical and Social Anhedonia Scales. In Study 2 (N = 26), an independent sample was recruited to assess the robustness of Study 1’s findings.

Results

The reward tasks were analyzed using signal detection theory to quantify how much reward cues bias participants’ responses. In both Study 1 and Study 2, social anhedonia scores were negatively correlated with change in response bias in the social reward task but not in the monetary reward task. A median split on social anhedonia scores confirmed that participants with high social anhedonia showed less change in response bias in the social reward task compared to participants with low social anhedonia.

Conclusions

This study confirms that social anhedonia selectively affects how much an individual changes their behavior based on the presence of socially rewarding cues and establishes a tool to quantify social reward responsiveness dimensionally.

Social Anhedonia Is Not Just Extreme Introversion: Empirical Evidence of Distinct Constructs

Social anhedonia and introversion, two closely related constructs associated with decreased positive emotions and decreased sociability, are common in schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorders. In light of a myriad of mixed findings regarding positive emotionality in anhedonia, there has been a call to reconceptualize "anhedonia." To clarify the nature of social anhedonia, we used confirmatory factor analysis to investigate the relationship between social anhedonia and introversion. Findings were consistent with the conceptualization of social anhedonia as a separate construct from introversion-the best fitting model was one in which social anhedonia and introversion measures loaded separately. Also consistent with the conceptualization of social anhedonia as separate, we found evidence that it was associated with aspects of alexithymia above and beyond any relationship with introversion. Overall, these results have implications for the understanding of social anhedonia and for the use of it as a discriminating factor between personality disorders characterized by introversion.

Social functioning in major depressive disorder

Depression is associated with social risk factors, social impairments and poor social functioning. This paper gives an overview of these social aspects using the NIMH Research and Domain Criteria 'Systems for Social Processes' as a framework. In particular, it describes the bio-psycho-social interplay regarding impaired affiliation and attachment (social anhedonia, hyper-sensitivity to social rejection, competition avoidance, increased altruistic punishment), impaired social communication (impaired emotion recognition, diminished cooperativeness), impaired social perception (reduced empathy, theory-of-mind deficits) and their impact on social networks and the use of social media. It describes these dysfunctional social processes at the behavioural, neuroanatomical, neurochemical and genetic levels, and with respect to animal models of social stress. We discuss the diagnostic specificity of these social deficit constructs for depression and in relation to depression severity. Since social factors are importantly involved in the pathogenesis and the consequences of depression, such research will likely contribute to better diagnostic assessments and concepts, treatments and preventative strategies both at the diagnostic and transdiagnostic level.

Both harmful and (some) helpful behaviours from others are associated with increased expression of schizotypal traits

Negative treatment from others is related to elevated levels of trait schizotypy, signifying increased risk for psychosis, but associations with helpful behaviour have been much less studied. Using the Stereotype Content Model we tested the hypothesis that passive and active forms of help would be associated with increased and decreased expression of schizotypy, respectively. Schizotypal traits were assessed in students (N=631) using positive (Perceptual Aberration) and negative (Social Anhedonia) subscales of the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief. Experiences of active (intentional) and passive (less deliberative) harm and help were assessed with the Behaviour from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes Treatment Scale. As predicted, the results showed that experiences of passive help from others were associated with a 2-3 fold increase in scores on schizotypy scales, whilst reports of active help tended to be associated with a decrease in scores on these scales. Results also showed that increased reports of active and passive harm were associated with elevated scores on negative and positive schizotypy subscales, consistent with prior research. These findings, bridging research on social stereotyping and schizotypal personality, challenge the assumption that helpful behaviour from others is always beneficial for individuals with schizotypal traits who are at increased risk for psychosis.

Anticipation and experience of emotions in patients with schizophrenia and negative symptoms. An experimental study in a social context

Negative symptoms play a central role in the impairment of social functioning in schizophrenia. Healthy individuals use anticipated emotions to guide their decisions to seek out social interactions. It is unknown whether social withdrawal in negative symptoms is related to a biased anticipation of emotions that will arise in social situations. This study thus examined differences between patients with negative symptoms of schizophrenia and healthy controls in the anticipation and experience of positive and negative emotions related to a social interaction. In a between-subject factorial design, participants were instructed to either predict or to experience emotions related to a simulated social inclusion and exclusion interaction. Overall, patients anticipated more intense negative emotions than controls. Divided by the type of social situation, however, patients reported less intense positive emotions than controls with regard to social inclusion, but not with regard to social exclusion. The lack of an overall deficit in anticipation of positive emotions speaks against the assumption that anticipation abnormalities in negative symptoms are due to a neurocognitive deficit. Rather, the findings seem to reflect negative beliefs about potentially rewarding social situations in people with negative symptoms.

Schizotypy as an organizing framework for social and affective sciences

Schizotypy, defined in terms of commonly occurring personality traits related to the schizophrenia spectrum, has been an important construct for understanding the neurodevelopment and stress-diathesis of schizophrenia. However, as schizotypy nears its sixth decade of application, it is important to acknowledge its impressively rich literature accumulating outside of schizophrenia research. In this article, we make the case that schizotypy has considerable potential as a conceptual framework for understanding individual differences in affective and social functions beyond those directly involved in schizophrenia spectrum pathology. This case is predicated on (a) a burgeoning literature noting anomalies in a wide range of social functioning, affiliative, positive and negative emotional, expressive, and social cognitive systems, (b) practical and methodological features associated with schizotypy research that help facilitate empirical investigation, and (c) close ties to theoretical constructs of central importance to affective and social science (eg, stress diathesis, neural compensation). We highlight recent schizotypy research, ie providing insight into the nature of affective and social systems more generally. This includes current efforts to clarify the neurodevelopmental, neurobiological, and psychological underpinnings of affiliative drives, hedonic capacity, social cognition, and stress responsivity systems. Additionally, we discuss neural compensatory and resilience factors that may mitigate the expression of stress-diathesis and functional outcome, and highlight schizotypy's potential role for understanding cultural determinants of social and affective functions.

Predicting symptoms of depression from social anhedonia and emotion regulation

The literature examining social anhedonia, emotion regulation, and symptoms of depression in psychiatric inpatients has been limited. However, some studies have shown that difficulties in emotion regulation and social anhedonia were independently associated with depression. The current study attempted to examine the effects of these two potential predictors of unipolar depressed mood. Fifty-nine (73% female) psychiatric inpatients were given the measures of emotion regulation, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and social anhedonia. Results showed that difficulties in emotion regulation, specifically dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies and emotional clarity, served as significant predictors of depressive symptoms above and beyond contributions from social anhedonia. These results highlight the importance of attending to emotion regulation in the study and treatment of depression in inpatient samples.

Attentional control mediates the relationship between social anhedonia and social impairment

Social anhedonia (SA), a trait-like disinterest in social contact and diminished capacity to experience pleasure from social interactions, is consistently associated with social impairments in both healthy and clinical populations. However, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between SA and social impairment are poorly understood. Attentional control, selecting and focusing on relevant information and inhibiting irrelevant, may be one such mechanism. We examined individual differences in SA, attentional control, and social impairment in 108 healthy adults. High SA related to low attentional control and high social impairment. Moreover, attentional control mediated the relationship between SA and social impairment, establishing attentional control as one mechanism underlying aberrations in the fundamental human need for social contact. Although both attentional deficits and social impairment have been separately noted in SA, the relationship between SA, attentional control and social impairment in this non-clinical sample reflects a novel contribution.

Planned missing-data designs in experience-sampling research: Monte Carlo simulations of efficient designs for assessing within-person constructs

Experience-sampling research involves trade-offs between the number of questions asked per signal, the number of signals per day, and the number of days. By combining planned missing-data designs and multilevel latent variable modeling, we show how to reduce the items per signal without reducing the number of items. After illustrating different designs using real data, we present two Monte Carlo studies that explored the performance of planned missing-data designs across different within-person and between-person sample sizes and across different patterns of response rates. The missing-data designs yielded unbiased parameter estimates but slightly higher standard errors. With realistic sample sizes, even designs with extensive missingness performed well, so these methods are promising additions to an experience-sampler's toolbox.

The assessment of interpersonal pleasure: introduction of the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS) and preliminary findings

Although several valid measures of pleasure and anhedonia exist, there is a relative paucity of measures that adequately assess pleasure for social interactions. The Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS) is a measure specifically designed to assess hedonic capacity for social and interpersonal pleasure. Various aspects of the validity and reliability of the ACIPS were examined in several ways. First, we assessed the factor structure as well as the internal consistency, convergent, and discriminant validity of the ACIPS in 496 young adults recruited from undergraduate classes. Second, we investigated the temporal stability of the measure by having a subset of the group return for retesting. Results from the factor analysis suggested a three-factor model. The ACIPS was found to be highly reliable in terms of internal consistency and test-retest stability. Further, the ACIPS correlated in a theoretically meaningful way with other measures of pleasure and affect. The current research indicates that the ACIPS is a reliable and valid questionnaire to assess hedonic capacity for social and interpersonal pleasure in nonclinical samples. Suggestions for further clinical and research applications using the ACIPS are offered.

Social networking profile correlates of schizotypy

Social networking sites, such as Facebook, are extremely popular and have become a primary method for socialization and communication. Despite a report of increased use among those on the schizophrenia-spectrum, few details are known about their actual practices. In the current research, undergraduate participants completed measures of schizotypy and personality, and provided access to their Facebook profiles. Information from the profiles were then systematically coded and compared to the questionnaire data. As predicted, social anhedonia (SocAnh) was associated with a decrease in social participation variables, including a decrease in number of friends and number of photos, and an increase in length of time since communication with a friend, but SocAnh was also associated with an increase in profile length. Also, SocAnh was highly correlated with extraversion. Relatedly, extraversion uniquely predicted the number of friends and photos and length of time since communication with a friend. In addition, perceptual aberration/magical ideation (PerMag) was associated with an increased number of "black outs" on Facebook profile print-outs, a measure of paranoia. Overall, results from this naturalistic-like study show that SocAnh and extraversion are associated with decreased social participation and PerMag with increased paranoia related to information on social networking sites.