Schillern, Emmelien (2025) EEG SIGNATURES OF ANHEDONIA: IDENTIFYING NEURAL MARKERS OF REDUCED PLEASURE RESPONSE. thesis, Medicine.
Full text available on request.Abstract
To improve remission rates in depression, there is growing interest in identifying patient characteristics that can predict treatment outcomes, particularly for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Anhedonia has emerged as a potential predictor, but its clinical utility remains limited by a lack of objective assessment tools. Event-related potentials (ERPs), especially the P300 component, have been linked to anhedonia and may offer a suitable neurophysiological marker. In this study, we investigated whether differences in ERPs could be observed between depressed adults with low-to-moderate (n = 199) versus high (n = 353) anhedonia severity, based on the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS). Using a two-tone auditory oddball paradigm, we estimated N100, N200 and P300 amplitudes and latencies across frontal and midline electrodes. No significant differences were found between anhedonia subgroups for any of the ERP components at any electrode. These findings suggest N100, N200 and P300 abnormalities, and underlying selective attention deficits, are not specifically associated with anhedonia in depressed adults, challenging earlier studies. Possible explanations include our larger and more heterogeneous sample, which enhanced the robustness and generalizability of our findings but potentially overlooked effects present in specific subpopulations. Second, it’s possible that our task paradigm did not elicit ERP responses that closely align with the aspects of anhedonia measured by the SHAPS. Future research should focus on more homogeneous samples, align task paradigms with the facets of anhedonia being studied, and explore alternative ERP markers. Identifying reliable anhedonia biomarkers remains crucial for tailoring antidepressant treatments and improving clinical outcomes.
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Haarman, B. and Belkum, S.M. van and Dijk, H. van |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 04 May 2026 13:11 |
| Last Modified: | 04 May 2026 13:11 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3940 |
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