SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL ANHEDONIA IN RELATION TO CEREBRAL LATERALITY AND ELECTRODERMAL HABITUATION IN UNMEDICATED PSYCHOTIC-PATIENTS

The neglect of psychophysiological investigation of social anhedonia, in contrast to physical anhedonia, was addressed by examining relation s between electrodermal orienting responses and their lateral asymmetr y in unmedicated schizophrenic, bipolar/schizoaffective, and unipolar depressive patients and normal control subjects. In support of relatio ns between social withdrawal and right-hemispheric reactivity, social anhedonia was associated with a predominance of right-hemispheric infl uences in schizophrenic and bipolar/schizoaffective patients but not i n depressive patients. Anhedonia in all but the depressive group was a lso related to responsiveness, particularly when fast habituators were pooled with nonresponders and compared with moderate and slow habitua tors. Anhedonia was higher in the more responsive group. This was part icularly true of physical anhedonia. The results support associations between both types of anhedonia - social and physical - and psychophys iology, and they also suggest that anhedonia is not a unitary concept.