The Sweet Taste Test: Relationships with Anhedonia Subtypes, Personality Traits, and Menstrual Cycle Phases

Jeffrey S. Bedwell1 & Christopher C. Spencer1 & Cristina A. Chirino1 & John P. O’Donnell1

Published online: 15 January 2019 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract A better understanding of the etiology and pathology related to distinct subtypes of anhedonia can lead to more efficacious personalized treatments. The current study advances knowledge on consummatory anhedonia – represented in the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) subconstruct of Initial Response to Reward (IRR). The Sweet Taste Test (STT) has promise as a behavioral paradigm for IRR, as it is sensitive to manipulation of ?-opioid receptors. However, there is a lack of existing knowledge of how the STT relates to subtypes of anhedonia, personality traits, and phases of the menstrual cycle. To address these questions, we administered the STT to 72 nonpsychiatric adults (76%women; mean age: 19.11). As predicted, the hedonic slope reflecting increasing Blike^ ratings over increasing concentrations of five sucrose solutions (ranging from 0.05 M to 0.86 M), was lower in individuals reporting higher consummatory anhedonia (measured with Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scales – Consummatory Subscale) and in women in the mid-to-late luteal menstrual phase (days 20 to 28). Both effects were driven by lower hedonic ratings to the sweetest concentration. The hedonic slope was larger in individuals scoring higher on the Flight-Freeze-Avoidance System personality factor from the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Personality Questionnaire – driven by lower hedonic ratings for the least sweet concentration. No factor or aspect from the Big Five Aspects Scale related to hedonic ratings on the STT. The STT may be a valid and specific standardized behavioral paradigm to add to IRR, particularly if validated in a large transdiagnostic psychiatric sample.

Keywords Sucrose .Reward .Consummatoryanhedonia . Initial responsiveness to rewardattainment .Researchdomaincriteria .

Consummatory pleasure

Introduction

Anhedonia is a transdiagnostic symptom which is particularly resistant to existing treatments relative to most co-occurring symptoms (McCabe et al. 2010; Vittengl et al. 2015). While the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) defines anhedonia as a unitary construct (e.g., Bdecreased interest and pleasure in most activities most of the day;^ American Psychiatric Association 2013), recent ad- vances in affective neuroscience suggest three distinct sub- types (Treadway and Zald 2011): motivational (i.e., wanting), consummatory (i.e., liking), and decisional (i.e., reward learn- ing). The National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Matrix includes

corresponding constructs under the Positive Valence Systems (PVS) domain (Insel et al. 2010). A better under- standing of the etiology and pathology related to distinct sub- types of anhedonia can lead to more efficacious personalized interventions for this treatment-resistant symptom (Insel and Cuthbert 2015; Strauss and Cohen 2017).Dr. Bedwell published a recent paper that showed that UCF undergraduate women who were in their mid-to-late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle had a reduction in reported pleasure during a behavioral task as compared to the other women and men. See .pdf link below for the paper. Please summarize what is discussed about the likely hormone that was responsible for this finding (see Discussion section) and what is known about the effect of this hormone on pleasure from other studies reviewed in the Introduction and Discussion sections of below paper.

file:///C:/Users/thech/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/TempState/Downloads/Bedwell%20et%20al%202019%20(3).pdf

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