Both psychosis and anhedonia have been associated to some extent with striatal functioning. The current study examined whether either psychosis risk or social anhedonia was associated with performance on 3 tasks related to striatal functioning. Psychosis risk participants had extremely elevated Perceptual Aberration/Magical Ideation (PerMag) scores (n = 69), with 43% of psychosis risk participa...

OBJECTIVE Perceived stress; emotional eating; anhedonia; depression and dietary restraint, hunger, and disinhibition have been studied as risk factors for obesity. However, the majority of studies have been cross-sectional and the directionality of these relationships remains unclear. In this longitudinal study, we assess their impact on future weight change. METHODS Psychological predictors ...

Dermatoglyphic anomalies are reported to occur at a higher rate in schizophrenic patients and schizotypic individuals than in the general population, supporting the hypothesis that they are a marker of vulnerability for such conditions. Dermatoglyphic anomalies are hypothesized to indicate severe disruptions in the second trimester of prenatal development, a time period that appears to be etiol...

Delineating the differential effects of anxiety versus depression on patterns of information processing has proved challenging. The tripartite model of mood disorders (Clark & Watson, 1991) suggests that one way forward is to adopt a dimensional rather than categorical approach, making it possible to explore the main and interaction effects of depression- and anxiety-specific symptoms on a give...

Mounting evidence suggests that social anhedonia may be a marker of genetic liability for schizophrenia-spectrum pathology. To examine this hypothesis, we conducted a study of severity of schizotypal, schizoid and paranoid pathology (i.e., Cluster A personality disorders) in the biological parents of individuals with high levels of social anhedonia and healthy controls. Eighty-six individuals w...

Theory of mind (ToM), the ability to attribute and reason about the mental states of others, is a strong determinant of social functioning among individuals with schizophrenia. Identifying the neural bases of ToM and their relationship to social functioning may elucidate functionally relevant neurobiological targets for intervention. ToM ability may additionally account for other social phenome...

BACKGROUND Confirmatory factor analytic studies have shown that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms included in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Disorders (DSM-5) may be better explained by two 6-factor models (the Externalizing Behaviours model and the Anhedonia model) and a 7-factor Hybrid model. The latter model comprises the symptom clusters of intrusion,...

People possess an innate need to belong that drives social interactions. Aberrations in the need to belong, such as social anhedonia and social anxiety, provide a point of entry for examining this need. The current study used experience-sampling methodology to explore deviations in the need to belong in the daily lives of 245 undergraduates. Eight times daily for a week, personal digital assist...

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 Fa...

Anhedonia (lack of reactivity to pleasurable stimuli) and a negatively skewed view of the future are important components of depression that could affect economic decisions in depressed individuals. Delay discounting paradigms might be useful for probing putative affective and cognitive underpinnings of such decisions. As a first step to evaluate whether difficulties experiencing pleasure might...