Aesthetic chills modulate reward learning in anhedonic depression

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Affective Science

Background:

• Anhedonia, a core symptom of depression, involves diminished ability to experience pleasure and is linked to altered reward processing.
• Aesthetic chills, a psychophysiological response to art, are associated with heightened emotional and reward system activity.
• Understanding factors that modulate reward learning is crucial for developing interventions for depression.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether experiencing aesthetic chills can enhance reward learning in individuals with elevated depressive symptoms, particularly anhedonia.
• To examine the effect of chills on the ability of participants to adjust their behavior based on reward feedback.
• To explore the specificity of this effect in individuals with high versus low anhedonia.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 103 participants with elevated depressive symptoms and a control group.
• Classified participants into High Anhedonic (HA), Low Anhedonic (LA), and control groups based on depression and anhedonia scores.
• Utilized ChillsDB, a validated database of audiovisual stimuli, to elicit aesthetic chills.

Main Results:

• Anhedonic participants who experienced chills showed a significant increase in response bias towards rewards (p=.004).
• No significant difference in reward bias was observed in Low Anhedonic participants after experiencing chills.
• The findings indicate a specific effect of chills on reward learning in anhedonia.

Conclusions:

• Experiencing aesthetic chills can positively impact reward learning in individuals with anhedonia.
• This effect aligns with the known neurobiology linking chills, emotion, and reward.
• Aesthetic chills represent a potential novel therapeutic approach for enhancing positive affect in depression.