Anticipated, on-line and remembered positive experience in schizophrenia☆
Received 30 June 2009; received in revised form 13 October 2009; accepted 19 October 2009. published online 11 November 2009. Corrected Proof
Abstract
Background
Three temporal stages in the evaluation of positive affect can be identified: anticipation, experience (hedonia) and memory. In schizophrenia, despite research indicating non-impaired hedonic capacities, little is known about anticipation and memory of positive affect. Moreover, the role of positive affect evaluations on motivation has rarely been studied in schizophrenia.
Method
Seventy individuals with schizophrenia and 35 non-patient control participants completed an evocative emotional task consisting of pictures and sounds. Following each presentation, participants rated their hedonic experience. Ratings of pre-test anticipated and post-test remembered pleasures were also obtained. Finally, explicit motivation to repeat the task was assessed.
Results
Compared to control participants, schizophrenia participants demonstrated similar levels of anticipation, hedonia and motivation, as well as significantly increased remembered pleasure. In schizophrenia, affective processes had lower correlations with motivation than in controls, and only remembered pleasure predicted motivation. Moreover, the predictive value of hedonia was significantly lower in schizophrenia.
Conclusions
The affective and cognitive processes involved in the anticipation, experience and memory of positive affective events showed no deficit, and to the contrary, immediately remembered pleasure was higher in schizophrenia. However, important deficits resided in the inter-connectivity between affective evaluations and motivational processes. The major deficit in schizophrenia participants' reward system was not in hedonic experiences but in the translation of pleasurable experiences into motivational states.
aNathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States
bDepartment of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States
cRockland Psychiatric Center, Orangeburg, NY, United States
dDepartment of Psychology, University of Chicago, IL, United States
Corresponding author. Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, 140 Old Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, NY 10962, United States. Tel.: +1 845 398 5599; fax: +1 845 398 5483.
☆ Presented in part as a poster at the 63rd Annual Scientific Convention of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, Washington DC, May 1–3, 2008.
ABSTRACT