Relationships between schizotypal features, trait anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, and naturalistic hedonic States

Deficient anticipatory and preserved consummatory pleasure are hypothesized in schizophrenia-spectrum conditions. However, corresponding findings regarding schizotypy are inconsistent presumably due to heterogeneity of schizotypal traits. We explored the relationships of trait anticipatory and consummatory pleasure with schizotypal features in 740 individuals using network modelling and cluster analysis and then, in a subsample of 191 subjects, examined whether clusters with distinct constellations of hedonic and schizotypal traits would differ in pleasurable states occurring during cognitive testing. Trait anticipatory pleasure correlated with positive and negative but not disorganized schizotypal signs and predicted in-the-moment pleasure, while there was no significant difference between clusters on emotional states. The results agree with the idea that trait anticipatory pleasure is of primary interest in schizotypy research and show that the heterogeneity of schizotypal traits and the proportion of anhedonic individuals in non-schizotypal control samples account for inconsistent findings regarding the reduction of trait anticipatory pleasure in schizotypy.

Automated summary

The study found that the reduction in trait anticipatory pleasure is the main characteristic of schizotypy, the traits are heterogeneous and not significantly related to states of pleasure.