Gender Impacts the Relationship between Mood Disorder Symptoms and Effortful Avoidance Performance

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Motivation and effort are crucial for navigating daily life, influencing avoidance of negative outcomes and pursuit of rewards.
• Depression and anxiety are often characterized by altered motivation, including increased avoidance and reduced reward-seeking.
• The interplay between anxiety, depression, motivated action, and gender remains incompletely understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between anxiety and depression scores and performance on effortful active and inhibitory avoidance tasks.
• To examine the association between anxiety and depression scores and performance on reward-seeking tasks.
• To explore potential gender differences in motivated action and its relationship with anxiety and depression.

Main Methods:

• Participants (N=545 for Study 1, N=310 for Study 2) completed the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI).
• An online task assessed performance on instructed active and inhibitory avoidance (Study 1) and reward-seeking (Study 2).
• Active trials required multiple presses, while inhibitory trials required withholding presses to avoid unpleasant stimuli or gain rewards.

Main Results:

• Men generally exerted more effort than women in both avoidance and reward-seeking tasks.
• Anxiety scores were negatively associated with active reward-seeking performance.
• A significant gender interaction indicated that women with higher anxiety exhibited poorer inhibitory avoidance performance.

Conclusions:

• Gender plays a role in the relationship between anxiety, depression, and motivated behavior.
• Anxiety specifically impairs inhibitory avoidance in women, suggesting distinct gendered impacts on motivated action.
• Findings highlight the complex interplay of anxiety, depression, gender, and effortful decision-making in humans.