Reward Sensitivity Research Articles

Research Review: The neuroscience of emerging adulthood - reward, ambiguity, and social support as building blocks of mental health.

The interval between adolescence and adulthood, 'emerging adulthood' (EA), lays the foundation for lifelong health and well-being. To date, there exist little empirical data - particularly in the neurobiological domain - to establish markers of risk and resilience during the transition to adulthood. This gap in the literature is concerning given the numerous forms of psychiatric illness that emerge or worsen during this period. In this review, we focus on two strands of research with distinct importance for EA: reward sensitivity, and tolerance of ambiguity. We begin by placing these domains in a framework that considers the unique developmental goals of EA and then synthesize emerging neurobiological research on how these domains develop during EA. We then consider their role in common mental health problems that occur during this interval as well as how social support may moderate outcomes. Finally, we offer recommendations for advancing research to understand developmental process and outcomes in EA. Few longitudinal studies specifically address emerging adult development and the milestones that characterize this interval. Data on neurobiological development are similarly sparse. Understanding neurobiological development during this window and its links to key adjustment outcomes is crucial for optimizing outcomes.

Amygdala and nucleus accumbens activation during reward anticipation moderates the association between life stressor frequency and depressive symptoms

BackgroundLife stressors confer risk for depressive symptoms, but individuals vary in the extent of their sensitivity to life stressors. One protective factor may be an individual's level of reward sensitivity, e.g., a stronger neurobiological response to environmental rewards may mitigate emotional responses to stressors. However, the nature of neurobiological reward sensitivity that corresponds with stress resilience is unknown. Further, this model is untested in adolescence, when life stressor frequency and depression increase. MethodsWe tested the hypothesis that stronger reward-related activation in the left and right nucleus accumbens (NAc), amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) attenuates the strength of the stress-depression relation. We measured BOLD activation throughout Win and Lose blocks of a monetary reward task, as well as during anticipation and outcome phases of the task. Participants (N = 151, ages 13–19) were recruited to be stratified on risk for mood disorders to enhance variance in depressive symptoms. ResultsActivation during anticipation of rewards in the bilateral amygdala and NAc, but not mPFC, buffered the association between life stressors and depressive symptoms. This buffering effect was not found for reward outcome activation or activation across Win blocks. ConclusionsResults highlight the importance of reward anticipation activation of subcortical structures in attenuating the stress-depression link, suggesting that reward motivation may be a cognitive mechanism through which this stress buffering occurs.

Moving, fast and slow: behavioural insights into bradykinesia in Parkinson's disease.

The debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease, including the hallmark slowness of movement, termed bradykinesia, were described more than 100 years ago. Despite significant advances in elucidating the genetic, molecular and neurobiological changes in Parkinson's disease, it remains conceptually unclear exactly why patients with Parkinson's disease move slowly. To address this, we summarize behavioural observations of movement slowness in Parkinson's disease and discuss these findings in a behavioural framework of optimal control. In this framework, agents optimize the time it takes to gather and harvest rewards by adapting their movement vigour according to the reward that is at stake and the effort that needs to be expended. Thus, slow movements can be favourable when the reward is deemed unappealing or the movement very costly. While reduced reward sensitivity, which makes patients less inclined to work for reward, has been reported in Parkinson's disease, this appears to be related mainly to motivational deficits (apathy) rather than bradykinesia. Increased effort sensitivity has been proposed to underlie movement slowness in Parkinson's disease. However, careful behavioural observations of bradykinesia are inconsistent with abnormal computations of effort costs due to accuracy constraints or movement energetic expenditure. These inconsistencies can be resolved when considering that a general disability to switch between stable and dynamic movement states can contribute to an abnormal composite effort cost related to movement in Parkinson's disease. This can account for paradoxical observations such as the abnormally slow relaxation of isometric contractions or difficulties in halting a movement in Parkinson's disease, both of which increase movement energy expenditure. A sound understanding of the abnormal behavioural computations mediating motor impairment in Parkinson's disease will be vital for linking them to their underlying neural dynamics in distributed brain networks and for grounding future experimental studies in well-defined behavioural frameworks.

Development and validation of the Social Reward Questionnaire-Early Childhood.

Social interactions like group inclusion, receiving praise, or treating others kindly can be motivating and enjoyable. Social reward sensitivity, including motivation and enjoyment, varies between individuals. In early childhood, this variation may relate to differences in social experience and development. Social reward questionnaires have been developed to measure individual differences in social enjoyment for adolescents and adults, but no early childhood measure currently exists. Here, we describe the development and validation of the parent/caregiver report Social Reward Questionnaire-Early Childhood (SRQ-EC) for children aged 3-7 years. The SRQ-EC was developed to quantify both wanting (motivation) and liking (enjoyment) of social rewards, which were considered in separate factor models. For wanting and liking models, exploratory (N = 126) and confirmatory (N = 344) factor analyses identified that three subscales best represented early childhood social reward sensitivity, which were: Sociability (large groups), Admiration (praise and positive attention), and Prosocial Interactions and Compliance (kindness and rule following). SRQ-EC subscales were internally consistent (ω = 0.76-0.91, α = 0.75-0.88, mean interitem correlations = 0.38-0.60) with high test-retest reliability over 2-weeks (r = 0.66-0.85, all p < .001). Subscales differentially associated with other social behavior and personality measures, suggesting construct validity. SRQ-EC subscale scores further showed differential and significant associations with autistic-like traits in nonautistic children. These results suggest that SRQ-EC subscale scores are reliable for assessing social reward sensitivity during early childhood, which could offer key developmental insight regarding interindividual variation in early social behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Food addiction and gender aspects: Risk factors, co-morbidites and treatment

AbstractFood addiction (FA) is characterized by poorly controlled intake of highly-palatable, calorically-dense, high-sugar, high-fat, and usually processed foods. Although not existing in the DSM-5 or ICD, it has been a widely discussed clinical and research entity for more than a decade, in the understanding of both obesity and also disordered eating behaviours. Most studies indicate that risk factors for FA are similar to substance use disorders. FA is also found to be linked with emotion regulation problems, impulsivity, distinct personality features, and other major psychopathologies including depression and anxiety. Morevoer, in several studies, female gender is found to be associated with more prevalent food addiction, up to 7 times. Female gender is also a predictor of severe food addiction, and high reward sensitivity was significantly associated with more severe FA symptoms in females. It is known that women are more likely to self-medicate than men in the acquisition phase of addiction and show a more rapid escalation of use than men (telescoping), whereas in general substance use disorders are much more common in men. The wide availability of hyperpalatable, high-calorie, and inexpensive food and the contextual and social factors that do not necessarily prevent women from consuming these drugs, contrary to that of illicit drugs, might explain why FA is more frequently observed in women than in men. Also, biological factors, hormonal changes and body-image disturbances might also be among the reasons why females are more affected from FA. Aspects related to gender should be taken into account for proper recognition and treatment of FA, a diagnosis of growing importance.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

A highly replicable decline in mood during rest and simple tasks.

Does our mood change as time passes? This question is central to behavioural and affective science, yet it remains largely unexamined. To investigate, we intermixed subjective momentary mood ratings into repetitive psychology paradigms. Here we demonstrate that task and rest periods lowered participants' mood, an effect we call 'Mood Drift Over Time'. This finding was replicated in 19 cohorts totalling 28,482 adult and adolescent participants. The drift was relatively large (-13.8% after 7.3 min of rest, Cohen's d = 0.574) and was consistent across cohorts. Behaviour was also impacted: participants were less likely to gamble in a task that followed a rest period. Importantly, the drift slope was inversely related to reward sensitivity. We show that accounting for time using a linear term significantly improves the fit of a computational model of mood. Our work provides conceptual and methodological reasons for researchers to account for time's effects when studying mood and behaviour.

Impaired Decision-Making and Skin Conductance Responses Are Associated with Reward and Punishment Sensitivity in Individuals with Severe Alcohol Use Disorder

Introduction: Individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) have difficulties regulating alcohol consumption, despite adverse drinking-related consequences. This may be due to incapacity incorporating previous negative feedback from drinking, resulting in impaired decision-making. Methods: We assessed whether decision-making is impaired in participants with AUD related to severity of AUD, indexed by severe negative drinking consequences using the Drinkers Inventory of Consequences (DrInC) and reward and punishment sensitivity with the Behavioural Inhibition System Behavioural Activation System (BIS BAS) scales. 36 treatment-seeking alcohol-dependent participants completed the Iowa gambling task (IGT) with skin conductance responses (SCRs) measured continuously as an index of somatic autonomic arousal to evaluate impaired expectancy of negative outcomes. Results: Two-thirds of the sample showed behavioural impairment during the IGT, with greater AUD severity related to worse performance. BIS moderated IGT performance according to severity of AUD, with increased anticipatory SCRs for those with fewer reported DrInC severe consequences. Participants with more DrInC severe consequences showed IGT deficits and reduced SCRs regardless of BIS scores. BAS-Reward was associated with increased anticipatory SCRs to disadvantageous deck choices among those with lower AUD severity, while SCRs did not differ related to AUD severity for reward outcomes. Discussion: Effective decision-making in the IGT and adaptive somatic responses were moderated by punishment sensitivity contingent on severity of AUD in these drinkers, with impairments in expectancy to negative outcomes from risky choices, including reduced somatic responses, resulting in poor decision-making processes that may help explain impaired drinking and worse drinking-related consequences.

Can testosterone modulate prosocial learning in healthy males? A double-blind, placebo-controlled, testosterone administration study

Testosterone is associated with both aggressive and prosocial behavior, which depend on the social context and the trade-off between self- and other-interest. However, little is known about the effects of testosterone on prosocial behavior in a context without such trade-offs. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of exogenous testosterone on prosocial behavior by using a prosocial learning task. Healthy male participants (n =120) received a single dose of testosterone gel in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-participants experiment. Participants performed a prosocial learning task in which they were asked to learn to gain rewards for three different recipients, i.e., self, other and computer, by choosing symbols associated with potential rewards. The results showed that testosterone administration increased the learning rates across all the recipient conditions (dother = 1.57; dself = 0.50; dcomputer = 0.99). More importantly, participants in the testosterone group had a higher prosocial learning rate than those in the placebo group (d = 1.57). These findings suggest that testosterone generally enhances reward sensitivity and prosocial learning. The present study corroborates the social status hypothesis, according to which testosterone promotes status-seeking prosocial behavior when it is appropriate to the social context.

Negative impact of daily screen use on inhibitory control network in preadolescence: A two-year follow-up study

The COVID-19 pandemic has made an unprecedented shift in children’s daily lives. Children are increasingly spending time with screens to learn and connect with others. As the online environment rapidly substitutes in-person experience, understanding children’s neuropsychological trajectories associated with screen experiences is important. Previous findings suggest that excessive screen use can lead children to prefer more immediate rewards over delayed outcomes. We hypothesized that increased screen time delays a child’s development of inhibitory control system in the brain (i.e., fronto-striatal circuitry). By analyzing neuropsychological data from 8324 children (9–11ys) from the ABCD Study, we found that children who had more screen time showed a higher reward orientation and weaker fronto-striatal connectivity. Importantly, we found that the daily screen exposure mediated the effect of reward sensitivity on the development of the inhibitory control system in the brain over a two year period. These findings suggest possible negative long-term impacts of increased daily screen time on children’s neuropsychological development. The results further demonstrated that screen time influences dorsal striatum connectivity, which suggests that the effect of daily screen use is a habitual seeking behavior. The study provides neural and behavioral evidence for the negative impact of daily screen use on developing children.

Striatal dopamine D2 receptor availability as a predictor of subsequent alcohol use in social drinkers.

Whereas striatal dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) availability has shown to be altered in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and in healthy individuals with a family history of AUD, the role of D2R in the development of AUD is unknown. In this positron emission tomography (PET) study, we measured whether D2R availability is associated with subsequent alcohol use and alcohol-related factors, at a follow-up 8 to 16 years post-PET scan, in social drinkers. Longitudinal study investigating the association between PET data and later self-report measures in healthy individuals. Academic research imaging centre in Stockholm, Sweden. There were 71 individuals (68 of whom had evaluable PET data, 5 females, 42.0 years mean age) from a series of previous PET studies. One PET examination with the D2R antagonist radioligand [11 C]raclopride at baseline and self-report measures assessing alcohol use, drug use, impulsivity, reward sensitivity and family history of alcohol or substance use disorder at follow-up. We found no evidence for an association between D2R availability and later alcohol use (B = -0.019, B 95% CI = -0.043 to -0.006, P = 0.147) nor for the majority of the alcohol-related factors (B 95% CI = -0.034 to 0.004, P = 0.273-0.288). A negative association with a small effect size was found between D2R availability and later impulsivity (B = -0.017, B 95% CI = -0.034 to -0.001, P = 0.046). Low striatal dopamine D2 receptor availability may not be a strong predictor in the development of alcohol use disorder.

Sport expertise and physical exercise are associated with “hot” executive functioning: An electrophysiological examination of reward processing in collegiate athletes

ABSTRACT Objective Prior research has revealed potential effects of sports expertise and physical exercise on cognition, though there is limited research examining their effects on the “hot,” emotional-processing aspects of executive functioning (e.g., valence and reward processing important for decision-making). The present study aimed to address this gap by examining event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during a reward-processing task in athletes versus non-athletes, while also investigating if sport expertise and exercise influence this electrophysiological response. Method A total of 45 participants, including 22 athletes (55% women, 45% men) and 23 non-athlete controls (57% women, 43% men) between the ages of 18–27, completed a “virtual T-maze” environment task involving a rewarded forced choice that elicits the reward positivity (Rew-P), an ERP component associated with reward processing. Rew-P peak amplitude was compared between groups, and both sport expertise and frequency of strenuous exercise were investigated as potential predictors of the Rew-P in athletes. Results No significant Rew-P differences were found between athletes and controls (t = −1.43, p = .16, d = −.43). However, frequency of strenuous exercise (β = −.51, p = .01) and sport expertise (β = −.48, p = .01) each accounted for a significant proportion of variability in the Rew-P peak amplitude in athletes. Conclusions Results indicate that, for young adults, sport expertise and physical exercise may each account for heightened electrophysiological reward sensitivity in athletes. Potential implications are discussed for decision-making, an integral cognitive process in sports that is driven by reward processing, and the role of reward-seeking and motivation in sport proficiency.

Chronic water restriction reduces sensitivity to brain stimulation reward in male and female rats

States of physiological need motivate individuals to seek and consume stimuli that restore homeostatic balance. This goal-directed behavior is driven, in part, by pathways that process reward and are sensitive to changes in physiological state, including the mesolimbic dopamine system. The effects of hunger and its physiological markers have been more widely studied for their role in modulating reward signaling pathways. However, fluid need produces robust goal-directed behavior and has also been shown to affect neural substrates of reward processing. To test how acute and chronic states of thirst might alter reward sensitivity, we used the intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) rate-frequency paradigm (Carlezon & Chartoff, 2007) with male and female Long Evans rats. We hypothesized that sensitivity to ICSS would increase under an acute need state for water and would decrease under chronic deprivation. We found that acute water deprivation for 22-hours prior to the ICSS session did not alter any parameters of reward sensitivity. To elicit motivated behavior toward water in the absence of physiological need, we chemogenetically activated glutamatergic neurons of the subfornical organ (SFO). Despite eliciting more water consumption than acute deprivation, acute chemogenetic activation of SFO neurons also did not alter reward sensitivity. Finally, subjects underwent a five-day chronic water restriction protocol with daily ICSS sessions to determine the effects of sustained physiological need. Chronic water restriction resulted in reduced sensitivity to ICSS. Together, these results indicate that persistent changes in physiological state alter the responsiveness of reward circuitry that could potentially exacerbate maladaptive reward-seeking behaviors.

Momentary gustative-olfactory sensitivity and tonic heart rate variability are independently associated with motivational behavior

Deficits in motivational functioning including impairments in reward learning or reward sensitivity are common in psychiatric disorders characterized by anhedonia. Recently, anhedonic symptoms have been exacerbated by the pandemic caused by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the general population. The present study examined the putative associations between loss of smell (anosmia) and taste (ageusia) sensitivity, irrespective of COVID-19 infection, and anhedonia, measured by a signal-detection task probing the ability to modify behavior as a function of rewards (Probabilistic Reward Task; PRT). Tonic heart rate variability (HRV) was included in the model, due to its association with both smell and taste sensitivity as well as motivational functioning. The sample included 114 healthy individuals (81 females; mean age 22.2 years), who underwent a laboratory session in which dispositional traits, resting HRV and PRT performance were assessed, followed by a 4-days ecological momentary assessment to obtain daily measures of anosmia and ageusia. Lower levels of tonic HRV and lower momentary levels of smell and taste sensitivity were associated with impaired reward responsiveness and ability to shape future behavioral choices based on prior reinforcement experiences. Overall, the current results provide initial correlational evidence that could be fruitfully used to inform future experimental investigations aimed at elucidating the disruptive worldwide mental health consequences triggered by the pandemic.

Willingness to Pay for a Dating App: Psychological Correlates.

The smartphone dating app, Tinder, has become hugely popular in recent years. Although most people use a free version of the app, some pay for an augmented version to improve their experience. However, there is little evidence of the association between the willingness to pay for a dating app such as Tinder and users' psychological characteristics. This study thus aims to compare Tinder paying versus non-paying users in terms of their pattern of use, excessive use of Tinder, motives for using Tinder, impulsivity traits, depressive mood, and sociodemographic variables, as well as to examine which variables best predict group membership. A total of 1159 Tinder users participated in an online survey. Group comparisons indicated that payers were more frequently male, reported greater motives for using Tinder than non-payers, and differed in their pattern of use compared with non-payers. Impulsivity traits did not significantly differ between the two groups. Being male and reporting greater motives for Tinder use significantly predicted being a payer. These findings provide insights into the processes that stimulate users' greater consumption of online dating apps, such as reinforcement mechanisms and reward sensitivity.

Measurement of Pupillary Reward Sensitivity: A Tool for Risk Stratification in Isolated Rapid Eye Movement Behavioral Disorder?

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

Altered neural reward processing is associated with reward-related decision-making in adolescents with severe obesity

Obesity is associated with altered food-related reward processing, but its impact on non-food reward remains unclear. This question is both timely due to rising rates of severe obesity and important because adolescence is a period of heightened reward seeking behavior. We used computational modeling and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine monetary reward processing using classic experimental tasks in 35 adolescents (14-18 years-old, 13 male) with severe obesity (OB; n=18) and without obesity (nonOB; n=17). Participants completed the Balloon Analog Risk Taking Task (BART) to assess reward-related decision-making and the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task to assess neural correlates of reward anticipation. BART model-based parameters revealed no differences in reward sensitivity but less adaptive decision-making (response consistency) in OB compared to nonOB. Other metrics (e.g., number of balloons popped, number of pumps, and total points) did not differ between groups. During MID reward anticipation, OB had lower activation than nonOB in ventral tegmental area (VTA) and prefrontal cortex, canonical regions for reward and cognitive control, respectively. Weight status moderated associations between VTA activation and BART metrics such that higher VTA activation was associated with more risky decision-making (more popped balloons) in OB but not nonOB. Functional connectivity of VTA with right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and left superior temporal gyrus (STG) was greater higher in OB than nonOB. Associations between value-related VTA-STG connectivity and BART metrics were moderated by weight status such that higher connectivity was associated with greater number of pumps and points for nonOB and less risky decision-making for OB. Therefore, differences in activation and connectivity between groups may suggest differences in decision-making strategies. Together, findings reveal that VTA, prefrontal, and temporal engagement during monetary reward anticipation differs in OB and nonOB adolescents and may contribute to individual differences in reward-related decision-making. Such domain-general alteration of reward processing may have far reaching consequences, not only for food intake but also functions central to motivational behavior such as learning and socialization during adolescence, a sensitive period in development. These findings highlight the importance of considering reward more broadly when designing and tailoring behavioral interventions in adolescent obesity

Contribution of the Roman rat lines/strains to personality neuroscience: neurobehavioral modeling of internalizing/externalizing psychopathologies.

The Roman high-avoidance (RHA) and low-avoidance (RLA) rat lines/strains were established in Rome through bidirectional selection of Wistar rats for rapid (RHA) or extremely poor (RLA) acquisition of a two-way active avoidance task. Relative to RHAs, RLA rats exhibit enhanced threat sensitivity, anxiety, fear and vulnerability to stress, a passive coping style and increased sensitivity to frustration. Thus, RLA rats' phenotypic profile falls well within the "internalizing" behavior spectrum. Compared with RLAs and other rat strains/stocks, RHAs present increased impulsivity and reward sensitivity, deficits in social behavior and attentional/cognitive processes, novelty-induced hyper-locomotion and vulnerability to psychostimulant sensitization and drug addiction. Thus, RHA rats' phenotypes are consistent with a "disinhibiting externalizing" profile. Many neurobiological/molecular traits differentiate both rat lines/strains. For example, relative to RLA rats, RHAs exhibit decreased function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus and amygdala, increased functional tone of the mesolimbic dopamine system, a deficit of central metabotropic glutamate-2 (mGlu2) receptors, increased density of serotonin 5-HT2A receptors in the PFC, impairment of GABAergic transmission in the PFC, alterations of several synaptic markers and increased density of pyramidal immature dendrític spines in the PFC. These characteristics suggest an immature brain of RHA rats and are reminiscent of schizophrenia features like hypofrontality and disruption of the excitation/inhibition cortical balance. We review evidence supporting RLA rats as a valid model of anxiety/fear, stress and frustration vulnerability, whereas RHA rats represent a promising translational model of neurodevelopmental alterations related to impulsivity, schizophrenia-relevant features and comorbidity with drug addiction vulnerability.

Reward network dysfunction is associated with cognitive impairment after stroke

Stroke survivors not only suffer from severe motor, speech and neurocognitive deficits, but in many cases also from a “lack of pleasure” and a reduced motivational level. Especially apathy and anhedonic symptoms can be linked to a dysfunction of the reward system. Rewards are considered as important co-factor for learning, so the question arises as to why and how this affects the rehabilitation of stroke patients.We investigated reward behaviour, learning ability and brain network connectivity in acute (3-7d) mild to moderate stroke patients (n = 28) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 26). Reward system activity was assessed using the Monetary Incentive Delay task (MID) during magnetoencephalography (MEG). Coherence analyses were used to demonstrate reward effects on brain functional network connectivity.The MID-task showed that stroke survivors had lower reward sensitivity and required greater monetary incentives to improve performance and showed deficits in learning improvement. MEG-analyses showed a reduced network connectivity in frontal and temporoparietal regions. All three effects (reduced reward sensitivity, reduced learning ability and altered cerebral connectivity) were found to be closely related and differed strongly from the healthy group.Our results reinforce the notion that acute stroke induces reward network dysfunction, leading to functional impairment of behavioural systems. These findings are representative of a general pattern in mild strokes and are independent of the specific lesion localisation. For stroke rehabilitation, these results represent an important point to identify the reduced learning capacity after stroke and to implement individualised recovery exercises accordingly.

The Effects of Self-Criticism, Reward Sensitivity, and Experiential Avoidance on Emotional Eating

Duygusal yeme, uzun süredir araştirilan bir konu olsa da bu durumla ilişkili olan psikolojik süreçler tam olarak aydinlanmamiştir. Duygusal yeme ile ilişkili olan psikolojik süreçlerin net bir şekilde anlaşilmasi; kişilere sağlikli duygu düzenleme becerilerinin kazandirilmasi, dünyada gittikçe yayginlaşmakta olan obezite problemine müdahale edilmesi ve yeme bozukluklarinda da görülen aşiri yeme davranişlarinin azaltilmasi için önemli katkilar sunabilir. Bu araştirmanin temel amaci üniversite öğrencilerinde kendini eleştirme, yaşantisal kaçinma ve ödüle duyarliliğin duygusal yeme ile ilişkilerinin incelenmesi ve müdahaleler geliştirmesine destek olacak verinin sunulmasidir. Çalişma, her düzeyden 377 (264 kadin, 113 erkek), 18-35 yaş araliğinda üniversite öğrencisinin katilimiyla yapilmiştir. Katilimcilara sirasiyla; araştirmacinin hazirladiği sosyo-demografik form, ‘Duygusal Iştah Anketi (DIA)’, ‘Kabul ve Eylem Formu-II (KEF-II)’, ‘Davranişsal Inhibisyon/ Davranişsal Aktivasyon Sistemi Ölçeği (DIS/DAS)’ ve ‘Kendini Eleştirme/Kendine Saldirma Formlari ve Kendine Güvence Verme Ölçeği (KEFGÖ)’ verilmiştir. Elde edilen bulgular IBM SPSS 23.0 programi ile analiz edilmiştir. Verilerin analizinde Pearson korelasyonu ve regresyon analizi kullanilmiştir. Yapilan analizler sonucunda kendini eleştirme, yaşantisal kaçinma ve ödüle duyarliliğin duygusal yemeyi yordadiği tespit edilmiştir. Olumsuz duygusal iştahi yordayan değişkenler yaşantisal kaçinma, kendini rahatlatma ve nefret eden benlik alt boyutlari olarak belirlenirken, olumlu duygusal iştahi yordayan değişkenler rahatlatan benlik ve ödüle duyarlilik alt boyutlari olmuştur. Beden kitle indeksi yalnizca olumsuz duygusal iştah tarafindan yordanmiştir. Bu bulgular; kendini eleştirme, ödüle duyarlilik ve yaşantisal kaçinmanin olumlu ve olumsuz duygu ve durumlarda sergilenen duygusal yeme davranişi üzerinde istatistiksel olarak anlamli bir etkisi olduğunu göstermiştir. Even though emotional eating is a long-explored topic, the underlying psychological mechanism contributing to it have not been fully enlightened. A clear understanding of the psychological processes associated with emotional eating; can provide important contributions to help people gain healthy emotional regulations skills, can help with interventions on obesity – which is becoming a widespread problem- and to reduce excessive eating behaviors which are also seen in eating disorders. The main objective of this study is to investigate the relations between self-criticism, experiential avoidance, reward sensitivity and emotional eating in university students and to provide scientific data to support the development of interventions.The study was conducted with 377 (264 women, 113 men) university students from all levels that are aged between 18-35. The participants were given; socio-demographic form, ‘Emotional Appetite Questionnaire (EAQ)’, ‘Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-2(AAQ-2)’, ‘Behavioral Inhibition Behavioral Activation Scale (BIS/BAS)’ and ‘Forms of Self- Criticizing and Self- Reassuring Scale (FSCRS)’. The findings obtained were analyzed with IBM SPSS 23.0 program. Independent groups t-test, ANOVA, pearson correlation and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. It was determined that self criticsm, experiential avoidance and reward sensitivity predicted emotional eating. While the variables that predicted negative emotional appetite were experiental avoidance, reassuring self and hated self, the variables that predicted positive emotional appetite were reassuring self and reward sensitivity subscales. Lastly, negative emotional appetite predicted body mass index. These findings show that self criticism, reward sensitivity and experiential avoidance has a statistically significant effect on eating behavior on both negative and positive emotions and situations.

Association between reward-related functional connectivity and tri-level mood and anxiety symptoms

Depression and anxiety are associated with abnormalities in brain regions that process rewards including the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), the ventral striatum (VS), and the amygdala. However, there are inconsistencies in these findings. This may be due to past reliance on categorical diagnoses that, while valuable, provide less precision than may be required to understand subtle neural changes associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. In contrast, the tri-level model defines symptom dimensions that are common (General Distress) or relatively specific (Anhedonia-Apprehension, Fears) to depression and anxiety related disorders, which provide increased precision. In the current study, eligibility was assessed by quasi-orthogonal screening questionnaires measuring reward and threat sensitivity (Behavioral Activation Scale; Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Neuroticism). These participants were assessed on tri-level symptom severity and completed the Monetary Incentive Delay task during fMRI scanning. VS-mOFC and VS-amygdala connectivity were estimated during reward anticipation and reward outcome. Heightened General Distress was associated with lower VS-mOFC connectivity during reward anticipation (b = -0.064, p = 0.021) and reward outcome (b = -0.102, p = 0.014). Heightened Anhedonia-Apprehension was associated with greater VS-amygdala connectivity during reward anticipation (b = 0.065, p = 0.004). The present work has important implications for understanding the coupling between the mOFC and vS and the amygdala and the vS during reward processing in the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety symptoms and for developing targeted behavioral, pharmacological, and neuromodulatory interventions to help manage these symptoms.