Hedonic processing impairments in clinical and subclinical samples

Schizophrenia is associated with a wide range of cognitive and emotional impairments including the reduced ability to experience pleasure and happiness, namely anhedonia. Anhedonia is one of the key negative symptoms affecting the ultimate functional outcome and has an adverse impact on quality of life for patients with schizophrenia. Yet, very little is known about whether at-risk individuals for psychosis will also show similar deficits in experiencing pleasure and happiness. The current presentation will seek to examine the ability of experiencing pleasure in individuals at-risk for psychosis by using a 2-facet framework of anhedonia, namely the anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. I shall provide evidence that these at-risk individuals have already demonstrated subtle behavioural manifestations and structural brain and functional connectivity abnormalities. These findings are consistent with the impairment of the “social brain” system observed in patients with established schizophrenia and highlight the need for early identification and corresponding intervention for assisting these individuals to cope with their daily functioning.

Professor Raymond C. K. Chan is a leading expert in mental disease and in particularly schizophrenia where he has published extensively.

The lecture is free to attend but require that you register by sending an email to jdall@hum.aau.dk before noon Monday February 5th.