Assessing the relationship between the human learned helplessness depression model and anhedonia.

The learned helplessness (LH) model is one of the most commonly used acute stress models to explain depression and it has shown good face and predictive validity. However, despite being able to induce depressed-like behaviors and corresponding psychophysiological changes, there is little evidence sh...

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Main Authors: Xin Song, Iris Vilares
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249056
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author Xin Song
Iris Vilares
author_facet Xin Song
Iris Vilares
author_sort Xin Song
collection DOAJ
description The learned helplessness (LH) model is one of the most commonly used acute stress models to explain depression and it has shown good face and predictive validity. However, despite being able to induce depressed-like behaviors and corresponding psychophysiological changes, there is little evidence showing that the LH paradigm can produce anhedonia, a core symptom seen in all forms of depression in humans. So far a couple of studies showed that rodents bred for helplessness develop anhedonic-like behaviors in response to stress; yet, to the best of our knowledge, no similar human research has tried to investigate the direct relationship between the LH model and anhedonia. In the present study, we use a modified version of the original LH task to experimentally and temporarily induce learned helplessness in college students and then examine if the human LH paradigm induces anhedonia. We aim to 1: address the ill-defined connection between the LH model and anhedonia, and 2: directly assess helplessness in humans as opposed to the majority of non-human animal subjects used in the helplessness literature. We believe that our study will fill an important gap in the learned helplessness model literature, and will advance our understanding of the relationship between depression and perceived control, as well as place limitations to what can and cannot be inferred from non-human animal data in this topic.
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spelling doaj.art-8b79fe73a32d4aafa6e0c73da9aee6442022-12-21T18:27:16ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-01163e024905610.1371/journal.pone.0249056Assessing the relationship between the human learned helplessness depression model and anhedonia.Xin SongIris VilaresThe learned helplessness (LH) model is one of the most commonly used acute stress models to explain depression and it has shown good face and predictive validity. However, despite being able to induce depressed-like behaviors and corresponding psychophysiological changes, there is little evidence showing that the LH paradigm can produce anhedonia, a core symptom seen in all forms of depression in humans. So far a couple of studies showed that rodents bred for helplessness develop anhedonic-like behaviors in response to stress; yet, to the best of our knowledge, no similar human research has tried to investigate the direct relationship between the LH model and anhedonia. In the present study, we use a modified version of the original LH task to experimentally and temporarily induce learned helplessness in college students and then examine if the human LH paradigm induces anhedonia. We aim to 1: address the ill-defined connection between the LH model and anhedonia, and 2: directly assess helplessness in humans as opposed to the majority of non-human animal subjects used in the helplessness literature. We believe that our study will fill an important gap in the learned helplessness model literature, and will advance our understanding of the relationship between depression and perceived control, as well as place limitations to what can and cannot be inferred from non-human animal data in this topic.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249056
spellingShingle Xin Song
Iris Vilares
Assessing the relationship between the human learned helplessness depression model and anhedonia.
PLoS ONE
title Assessing the relationship between the human learned helplessness depression model and anhedonia.
title_full Assessing the relationship between the human learned helplessness depression model and anhedonia.
title_fullStr Assessing the relationship between the human learned helplessness depression model and anhedonia.
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the relationship between the human learned helplessness depression model and anhedonia.
title_short Assessing the relationship between the human learned helplessness depression model and anhedonia.
title_sort assessing the relationship between the human learned helplessness depression model and anhedonia
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249056
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AT irisvilares assessingtherelationshipbetweenthehumanlearnedhelplessnessdepressionmodelandanhedonia