Gender Differences In Pleasure: The Mediating Roles of Cognitive Flexibility And Emotional Expressivity

Background: Gender differences have been found to be associated with individuals’ pleasure. Cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity might play an important role between gender differences and pleasure. This current study is to explore the mediating role of cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity in the relationship between gender differences and pleasure.Method: In this cross-sectional study, a sample of 1107 full-time university students from five colleges in Tianjin, Chinese mainland was investigated by questionnaire. All participants completed the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPs), the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI), and the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ). Results: The results of independent T-test suggested that females reported better emotional expressivity, anticipatory pleasure and consummatory pleasure than males, whereas males had better cognitive flexibility than females. Regression analyses using bootstrapping procedures revealed that the partially mediation effects of both cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity on the influence of gender differences in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Results of this present study stated that cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity play a partial mediating role in explaining gender differences in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Conclusion: Females had higher anticipatory and consummatory pleasure because they benefited from their better use of emotional regulation strategy to express their emotion.

Association of Cognitive Impairment With Anhedonia in Patients With Schizophrenia

Anhedonia is considered as one of the five dimensions of negative symptoms and mainly refers to the reduction of the capacity of feeling pleasure. Increasing evidence suggests that anhedonia in schizophrenia may be partly explained by cognitive impairment. However, the associations between specific cognitive impairment and anhedonia are not fully investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine anticipatory anhedonia, consummatory anhedonia, and their cognitive associations in schizophrenia. A total number of 100 patients with schizophrenia and 67 healthy volunteers were recruited. The clinical symptoms of schizophrenia were assessed. Anticipatory pleasure, consummatory pleasure, and cognitive functions of each participant were measured. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to investigate the influencing factors of anhedonia in schizophrenia. The results showed no significant differences in sex, age, education year, body mass index (BMI), and marital status between the schizophrenia group and healthy control group (all P > 0.05). Both anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in the schizophrenia group were significantly lower than those in the healthy control group (all P < 0.05). Immediate memory, visual spanning, language, attention, and delayed memory were significantly poorer in the schizophrenia group (all P < 0.05). The results showed that language deficit is an independent risk factor for anticipatory anhedonia (B' = 0.265, P = 0.008, 95% CI: 0.038-0.244), while delayed memory deficit is an independent risk factor for consummatory anhedonia (B' = 0.391, P < 0.001, 95% CI:0.085-0.237). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that reported the specific cognitive associations of anhedonia in schizophrenia. The findings have added new evidence on the influencing factors of anhedonia and provided clues for the associations between clinical manifestations of schizophrenia.

Factor structure and sex invariance of the temporal experience of pleasure scale (TEPS) in Chinese university students and clinical population

Background A motivation dimension of the core psychiatric symptom anhedonia additional has been suggested. The Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) has been reported to assess anticipatory and consummatory pleasure separately in multiple factor-structure models. This study explored the factor structure of a Chinese version of the 18-item TEPS and further explored the measurement invariance of the TEPS across sex and clinical status (non-clinical, psychiatric). Methods Best-fit factor structure of the TEPS was examined in a non-clinical cohort of 7410 undergraduates, randomized into sample 1 (N = 3755) for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and sample 2 (N = 3663) for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Additionally, serial CFA was conducted to evaluate measurement invariance across sex and between clinical (N = 313) and non-clinical (N = 341) samples. Results EFA supported a new four-factor structure with a motivation component, based on the original two-factor model (consummatory pleasure with/without motivation drive, anticipatory pleasure with/without motivation drive). CFA confirmed the four-factor model as the best-fit structure and revealed a second-order hierarchy in non-clinical and clinical samples. Full scalar invariance was observed across clinical and non-clinical samples and across sex in the clinical sample; only partial scalar invariance was observed across sex in the non-clinical sample. Conclusions A four-factor structured TEPS can assess motivation-driving dimensions of anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, consistent with the recently advanced multidimensional structure of anhedonia. CFA and measurement invariance results support application of the TEPS for assessing motivation aspects of anhedonia.

Self-Report Measures of Anhedonia and Approach Motivation Weakly Correspond to Anhedonia and Depression Assessed via Clinical Interviews

Self-report scales are popular tools for measuring anhedonic experiences and motivational deficits, but how well do they reflect clinically significant anhedonia? Seventy-eight adults participated in face-to-face structured diagnostic interviews: 22 showed clinically significant anhedonia, and 18 met criteria for depression. Analyses of effect sizes comparing the anhedonia and depression groups to their respective controls found large effects, as expected, for measures of depressive symptoms, but surprisingly weak effect sizes (all less than d=.50) for measures of general, social, or physical anhedonia, behavioral activation, and anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Measures of Neuroticism and Extraversion distinguished the anhedonic and depressed groups from the controls at least as well as measures of anhedonia and motivation. Taken together, the findings suggest that caution is necessary when extending self-report findings to populations with clinically significant symptoms.

Impairments in Episodic Future Thinking for Positive Events and Anticipatory Pleasure in Major Depression

Background: Characteristic of the cardinal symptom of anhedonia, people with clinical depression report lower levels of anticipatory pleasure. However, the psychological mechanisms underlying these deficits are poorly understood. This is the first study to assess whether, and to what extent, phenomenological characteristics of episodic future thinking for positive future events are associated with anticipatory pleasure among depressed individuals. Methods: Individuals with a Major Depressive Episode (MDE; N = 117) and without (N = 47) completed ratings scales for depressive symptoms and trait anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. They then provided descriptions of personally-relevant positive future events and rated them for phenomenological characteristics and state anticipatory pleasure.Results: Between-groups analysis showed that those with MDE reported lower trait anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. They also simulated future events with less specificity, less detail/vividness, less use of mental imagery, less use of first-person perspective, less plausibility/perceived likelihood of occurring, and reported less associated state anticipatory pleasure. In regression analyses in the depressed group, lower scores for detail/vividness, mental imagery, and personal significance all uniquely predicted lower state anticipatory pleasure. Limitations: Cognitive functioning was not assessed, which may help clarify deficits that underpin these findings. History of previous depressive episodes in the comparison group were not assessed, which may underestimate between-group effects.Conclusions: This study provides further evidence of deficits in anticipatory pleasure and episodic future thinking in depressed individuals. It also establishes links between state anticipatory pleasure and particular characteristics of episodic future thinking that may be amenable to intervention to reduce anhedonia.

M228. THE EFFECT OF SOCIALIZATION ON ANTICIPATORY AND CONSUMMATORY PLEASURE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

Background Individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ) may have deficits in anticipatory but not consummatory components of pleasure, which are associated with negative symptoms including social anhedonia and reduced social motivation. In contrast, more general hedonic deficits in SCZ may be associated with depression. Much of the research on these distinct components of pleasure has focused on non-social stimuli, with less work on social pleasure. Although lab-based studies on social pleasure suggest that SCZ show deficits in both anticipatory and consummatory components of socialization, SCZ report a normative need for social affiliation as well as greater positive and less negative affect when with others than alone. We examined anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in SCZ in a social context using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), testing the hypotheses that: 1) clinician rated social anhedonia and amotivation are associated with decreases in anticipatory but not consummatory pleasure in daily life; 2) depression is associated with deficits in both anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in daily life; 3) current socialization is associated with both increased current pleasure and increased anticipation of future events. Methods Participants SCZ (N=63) were recruited as part of two separate EMA studies. The EMA questionnaire included questions assessing participants’ current socialization (with known others or alone/with strangers), happiness (as a measure of in-the-moment mood), current enjoyment of activities, and anticipated enjoyment, among other questions related to their responses to daily activities. Participants were prompted to complete the EMA survey four times per day for seven days. Clinical assessments of social motivation and social anhedonia using the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms and Beck’s Depression Inventory scores were also obtained in the lab. Results Hierarchical linear modeling showed that social anhedonia and social amotivation predicted decreased anticipated enjoyment (social motivation β= -0.228 p =0.016; social anhedonia β= -0.203, p= 0.0287) when accounting for current socialization, but not decreased consummatory enjoyment or happiness. Depression predicted current happiness (β=-0.024, p= 0.0125), current enjoyment (β=-0.020, p= 0.004) and future enjoyment (β= -0.030, p <0.001). However, depression no longer predicted future enjoyment when accounting for current happiness. Both current happiness and current socialization predicted current enjoyment (happiness β= 0.37, p < 0.001; socialization β= 0.098, p= 0.0148). Current happiness also predicted anticipated enjoyment (β= 0.190, p< 0.001), while current socialization did not. Discussion Consistent with our hypotheses, the current findings indicated differential relationships of depression and social anhedonia/motivation in SCZ to social consummatory versus anticipatory pleasure. Social amotivation and social anhedonia predicted decreased anticipated but not consummatory (i.e., current) pleasure when accounting for socialization. In contrast, current social experience predicted consummatory but not anticipatory pleasure, contrary to our hypothesis. Further, depression predicted current mood (happiness) and both consummatory and anticipatory pleasure, but the association with anticipatory pleasure was mediated by depression’s relationship to current happiness. These findings extend the work on non-social components of pleasure in SCZ to a social context and provide evidence that broader hedonic deficits are associated with mood, while negative symptoms are more specifically associated deficits in anticipatory pleasure.