Opposed Mood Dynamics of Depression and Anxiety are related to Reward Prediction Error

Abstract

Abstract Mood fluctuations, central to human experience, are profoundly influenced by reward prediction error (RPE). Although depression and anxiety are traditionally understood to exhibit contrasting mood fluctuations, their interrelated nature has made it challenging to pinpoint their specific roles in RPE-induced mood variations. In this study, we employed a computational model of momentary mood using a gambling task, involving 2,011 participants. These participants also completed a series of questionnaires, allowing us to differentiate the influences of anxiety- and depression-specific traits through bifactor modelling. Across five experiments, we found that depression was associated with dampened mood fluctuations due to mood hyposensitivity to RPE. In contrast, anxiety correlated with heightened mood fluctuations stemming from mood hypersensitivity to RPE. Notably, when participants were given explicit RPE information, the suppressive impact of depression on mood sensitivity was mitigated, leading to mood improvement. Furthermore, we verified that adjusting mood sensitivity to RPE is beneficial for patients with mood disorders. Collectively, our results present a novel, non-pharmacological, and easy-to-use online intervention for depression.