Low hedonic tone represents a reduced capacity to experience pleasure at any given time, thus increasing the likelihood of experiencing anhedonia. If anhedonia is the state of reduced ability to feel pleasure, then hedonic tone, also referred to as hedonic capacity or hedonic responsiveness, is the trait or genetic predisposition underlying one’s baseline range and lifelong characteristic ability to feel pleasure. 2, 5 These behaviors may include the lack of anticipation or prediction of expected rewards, lack of ability to evaluate the perceived values and costs associated with anticipated rewards, inability to gauge the amount of effort required to attain rewards, inability to evaluate whether the effort is sufficiently rewarded, and lack of motivation to execute actions required to attain rewards. ![]() ![]() 2, 5 Deficits in reward-related processing may present as loss of interest or pleasure and may impede an individual’s ability to engage in goal-directed behavior. 3, 4 However, the term anhedonia is insufficient to summarize the intricate and multidimensional reward-associated deficits displayed by patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. 2 It has been suggested that the core affect shapes hedonic valence of one’s experiences.Īnhedonia, defined as the state of reduced ability to experience feelings of pleasure, is one of the hallmarks of depression. 1 Core affect is defined as a neurophysiological state that underlies the general feelings of “good” or “bad”, “drowsy” or “energized”. Unlike emotions, which are specific and usually occur in response to a stimulus, mood is a general feeling of one’s psychological state that is longer lasting than specific emotions. Emotions represent complex psychological states that are elicited as a response to one’s external environment and involve the interplay between behavioral and physiological responses. We propose that, since low hedonic tone is a shared feature of MDD, ADHD, and substance abuse, evaluation of hedonic tone may become a diagnostic feature used to predict subtypes of MDD, such as treatment-resistant depression, as well as comorbidities of these disorders.Įmotions, mood, and affect are the underlying phenomena of psychological states and disorders. The purpose of this article is to review the neurobiology of hedonic tone as it pertains to depression, ADHD, and the potential for substance abuse. Given the common features of these disorders, it is not surprising that they have high levels of comorbidities. Mood disorders such as MDD, ADHD, and substance abuse share low hedonic tone as well as altered activation of brain regions involved in reward processing and monoamine signaling as their features. Dysfunction of these circuits has also been implicated in the relative ineffectiveness of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors used to treat anxiety and depression in patients with low hedonic tone. The activity of various components of the limbic–cortical–striatal–pallidal–thalamic pathway is correlated with hedonic tone in healthy individuals and is altered in MDD. The main neural pathway that modulates emotional affect comprises the limbic–cortical–striatal–pallidal–thalamic circuits. Low hedonic tone has been associated with several psychopathologies, including major depressive disorder (MDD), substance use, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Low hedonic tone represents a reduced capacity to experience pleasure, thus increasing the likelihood of experiencing anhedonia. ![]() Hedonic tone is the trait underlying one’s characteristic ability to feel pleasure. Anhedonia, defined as the state of reduced ability to experience feelings of pleasure, is one of the hallmarks of depression.
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