Reward Processing in Motivational and Affective Disorders, volume II

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Background

This Research Topic is the second volume of Research Topic "Reward processing in motivational and affective disorders". Please see the first volume here

Once again, we assign reward processing a pivotal role in increasing our understanding of and remediation of a spectrum of affective, addictive, and self-regulation disorders. In volume one, we pointed out that preferential reward processing is the hallmark of addiction, where salient cues become overvalued and trigger compulsion. Contrastingly, in depression, and conditions where anhedonia prevails, rewards appear to lose their incentive properties or become devalued. When these core components of reward processing are dysregulated, mental health is compromised. Conversely, when people develop mental health conditions, reward processing can become blunted, thus reducing motivation to recover and increasing the risk of relapse. Further, in eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, the rewards associated with the anticipation and consummation of food appear to be discounted, often in the context of anhedonia.

Since the first volume of this Topic appeared in 2016, research has continued at scale. As well as laboratory findings, reward processing has become a legitimate therapeutic focus. Thus, clinical outcome research has indicated that amplifying the experience of reward attainment in depressed and anxious people can reverse anhedonia and reduce negative affect. We maintain that this and other accumulating research justify curating a new volume on the influential process of reward processing. We welcome theoretical and empirical work that:

• Explores new avenues of research by investigating the processing of rewards at the cognitive, behavioral, motivational, neural, computational, molecular, and epigenetic levels.
• Describes findings on prospective cognition, e.g., Episodic Future Thinking, indicating that forming valued or hedonic future goals (i.e., rewards) can reduce impulsivity.
• Findings, which could be proof of concept, where reward processing is a specific but not necessarily exclusive target.
• Refines and augments the evidential database for tried and tested therapies such as Contingency Management and Behavioral Activation by focusing on core cognitive processes mediating rewards.
• Findings that the induction of positive affect in personal and interpersonal contexts (e.g., a compassion stance towards self and others) can overcome anhedonia and promote reward pursuit. In this regard, the use of virtual reality or other information technologies could be appropriate.

As in volume one, we rely on the Research Domains Criteria (RDoC) as a framework, in particular the Positive Valence and Cognitive Systems. The dynamics of goal maintenance or representations of reward satiation in working memory, for instance, are areas that continue to inform the practice of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). For example, temporal discounting of future rewards, whereby smaller, more immediate rewards are chosen even when significantly more valuable deferred rewards are available, is another trans-diagnostic phenomenon in the present context. This prioritization of immediate rewards and discounting of future rewards is thought to reflect compulsion in the addictive context and hopelessness on the part of people experiencing depression. Since volume one, psychological therapies such as CBT have also begun to emphasize the core or common processes that operate to drive therapeutic gain across superficially different techniques or “brands” of therapy. Reward processing appears to be an eminently plausible candidate variable in this context.

Keywords: Reward processing, Cognitive processing, Motivation, Addiction, Anhedonia

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