A Novel Bench-to-Bedside Translational Model of Anhedonia
Project Principal Investigator/s:
Dr. James F. Cavanagh
Funding Agency:
National Institutes of Health/NIMH
Amount Awarded:
$373,519
Period of Performance:
03/2019 - 01/2019
Goals and Aims of Study
The EEG response known as the Reward Positivity is a candidate biomarker specific to value-based deficiencies in anhedonia. The objective of this proposal is to test whether emotion and depressed mood directly diminish the Reward Positivity. These experiments address a computational function tightly tied to a neural response that directly addresses the disease-specific phenotype in human patients and is capable of being assessed, manipulated, and recovered within a rodent model.
How this Research Will Benefit Society
The successful completion of the aims advanced here will create what we think is the most promising path for combining these strengths into a computationally-inspired, mechanistically tested, translatable model of aberrant valuation in anhedonia. This novel candidate biomarker will then be translatable between species and testable in an outpatient clinic.
