# Reward Responsiveness as a Prevention Target in Youth At Risk for Anhedonia

> **NIH NIH R61** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $715,873

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Anhedonia, a core symptom of depression and other forms of psychopathology characterized by loss of
interest or pleasure, is associated with a range of negative health outcomes, including suicide risk, and poor
treatment response. Low activation of positive valence systems, particularly low reward responsiveness (RR),
is a key brain-behavioral process underlying anhedonia. Critically, there is growing evidence that low RR is
observable in children at risk for anhedonia due to maternal symptomatology and reflects a vulnerability for the
later emergence of anhedonia and depression. Thus, targeting RR in high-risk children is critically needed to
prevent the development of anhedonia, alter risk trajectories, and mitigate the tremendous health burden of
anhedonia-related psychopathology. Combining principles from adult positive affect treatment and family
cognitive behavioral preventive interventions, we developed an innovative, neuroscience-informed dyadic
preventive intervention, Family Promoting Positive Emotions (F-PPE), for 8- to 12-year-old children and
mothers with a history of major depressive disorder with anhedonia. F-PPE is designed to specifically target
RR in children, assessed at the neural level using well-validated electroencephalogram methods. The first
phase of the project (R61) will focus on target engagement, testing whether F-PPE increases child neural RR
relative to an active comparison. Children (N=60) will complete neural measures of RR pre-intervention, 4-
weeks into the intervention to determine dose effects, and post-intervention (8 weeks). Biological mother-child
dyads will be randomized to F-PPE or a psychoeducation preventive intervention comparison. Target
engagement will be defined as an increase in neural RR in the F-PPE relative to psychoeducation group with
at least a medium effect size (d > .40). Change in the target at 4 weeks will be examined to determine dose
effects and integrated with participant feedback to refine F-PPE for the R33 phase. The R33 phase will be a
replication and extension to clinical outcomes with 100 biological mother-child dyads. Dyads will again be
randomized to F-PPE or a comparable number of psychoeducation sessions. In addition to neural RR,
ecological momentary assessment of real-world experiences of interest and pleasure and clinical symptoms of
anhedonia will be assessed pre- and post-intervention and at a 6-month follow-up assessment. We will
examine effects of F-PPE on momentary experiences of interest/pleasure and symptoms of anhedonia across
the longitudinal follow-up and test change in RR as a mechanism of clinical effects of F-PPE. These projects
will take critical next steps in translating developmental affective neuroscience research to prevention and
moving towards precision medicine to reduce the burden of anhedonia and associated psychopathologies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10879175
- **Project number:** 5R61MH131751-02
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Katie L Burkhouse
- **Activity code:** R61 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $715,873
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-07-01 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10879175

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10879175, Reward Responsiveness as a Prevention Target in Youth At Risk for Anhedonia (5R61MH131751-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10879175. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*