Association Between Childhood Anhedonia and Alterations in Large-scale Resting-State Networks and Task-Evoked Activation

IMPORTANCE: Anhedonia can present in children and predict detrimental clinical outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To map anhedonia in children onto changes in intrinsic large-scale connectivity and task-evoked activation and to probe the specificity of these changes in anhedonia against other clinical phenotypes (low mood, anxiety, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were from the first annual release of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, collected between September 2016 and September 2017 and analyzed between April and September 2018. Cross-sectional data of children aged 9 to 10 years from unreferred, community samples during rest (n = 2878) and during reward anticipation (n = 2874) and working memory (n = 2745) were analyzed. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Alterations in fMRI data during rest, reward anticipation, and working memory were examined, using both frequentist and Bayesian approaches. Functional MRI connectivity within large-scale networks, between networks, and between networks and subcortical regions were examined during rest. Functional MRI activation were examined during reward anticipation and working memory using the monetary incentive delayed and N-back tasks, respectively. RESULTS: Among 2878 children with adequate-quality resting-state fMRI data (mean [SD] age, 10.03 [0.62] years; 1400 girls [48.6%]), children with anhedonia (261 [9.1%]), compared with those without anhedonia (2617 [90.9%]), showed hypoconnectivity among various large-scale networks and subcortical regions, including between the arousal-related cingulo-opercular network and reward-related ventral striatum area (mean [SD] with anhedonia, 0.08 [0.10] vs without anhedonia, 0.10 [0.10]; t2,876 = 3.33; P