Anhedonia buffers the effects of early-life unpredictability on threat-reward decision-making.

Leonard, B. T.; Martinez-Ortiz, M. A.; Bock, J.; Zhang, Y.; Taylor, D. V.; Glynn, L.; Davis, E.; Stern, H. S.; Baram, T. Z.; Hartley, C. A.; Yassa, M. A.; Bornstein, A. M.

doi:10.64898/2026.05.16.725643

bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.05.16.725643

Anhedonia buffers the effects of early-life unpredictability on threat-reward decision-making.

Leonard, B. T.·Martinez-Ortiz, M. A.·Bock, J.·Zhang, Y.·Taylor, D. V.·Glynn, L.·Davis, E.·Stern, H. S.·Baram, T. Z.·Hartley, C. A.·Yassa, M. A.·Bornstein, A. M.

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Abstract

Anhedonia - the diminished capacity to experience or anticipate pleasure - is among the most common consequences of early-life unpredictability, yet how these co-occurring conditions jointly shape real-world decision-making remains unknown. Here, we use a sequential foraging-under-threat task to probe motivational conflict decisions in 357 individuals varying in early-life unpredictability and anhedonia symptoms. We find that unpredictability and anhedonia exert opposing influences on choice: unpredictability shifts behavior away from the survival-optimal policy in a sex-dependent manner, while anhedonia promotes adherence to it, partly through heightened sensitivity to unexpected threatening outcomes. A mediation analysis reveals that anhedonia partially buffers the deleterious effects of unpredictability on decision quality. These results demonstrate that co-occurring conditions can mask one anothers behavioral signatures and suggest that the heterogeneous expression of transdiagnostic constructs like anhedonia may reflect context-dependent adaptations to distinct underlying etiologies.

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Leonard, B. T., Martinez-Ortiz, M. A., Bock, J., Zhang, Y., Taylor, D. V., Glynn, L., Davis, E., Stern, H. S., Baram, T. Z., Hartley, C. A., Yassa, M. A., Bornstein, A. M.. 2026-05-19. Anhedonia buffers the effects of early-life unpredictability on threat-reward decision-making.. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.16.725643

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