Neural signatures of saliency-mapping in anhedonia: A narrative review

Abstract

Anhedonia is the loss of pleasure or motivation to engage in previously enjoyable activities, and is a transdiagnostic symptom associated with significant clinical impairment. Anhedonia is implicated in several different psychiatric disorders, presenting a promising opportunity for transdiagnostic treatment. Thus, developing targeted treatments for anhedonia is of critical importance for population mental health. An important first step in doing so is establishing a thorough understanding of the neural correlates of anhedonia. The Triple Network Model of Psychopathology provides a frame for how brain activity may go awry in anhedonia, specifically in the context of Salience Network (SN) function (i.e., saliency-mapping). We present a narrative review examining saliency-mapping as it relates to anhedonia severity in depressed and transdiagnostic adult samples. Results revealed increased anhedonia to be associated with hyperactivity of the SN at rest and in the context of negative stimuli, as well as a global lack of SN engagement in the context of positive stimuli. Potential treatments for anhedonia are placed within this model, and future directions for research are discussed.

Keywords: Anhedonia; Reward processing; Salience network.

Fig. 1.

Schematic diagram of saliency-mapping in the Triple Network Model of Psychopathology. Adapted from Menon, V., Uddin, L.Q., 2010. Saliency, switching, attention and control: a network model of insula function. Brain Struct Funct 214, 655–667. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-010-0262-0