COVID-19 consequences on motivational functioning: an ecological and laboratory study

Deficits in motivational functioning, including impairments in reward learning or reward sensitivity, are common in psychiatric disorders characterized by anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure in previously rewarding activities and stimuli. Anhedonic symptoms have been exacerbated by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the general population. The present study examined whether consequences of COVID-19 such as anosmia and ageusia (loss of smell and taste sensitivity, respectively), could predict anhedonia assessed by the Probabilistic Reward Task (PRT), a well-validated signal-detection task operationalizing participants’ reward processing. Tonic heart rate variability (HRV) was also assessed as a potential predictor of anhedonic behavior. 114 healthy individuals (81 females) underwent a laboratory session in which dispositional traits, resting HRV and performance on the PRT were assessed, followed by a 4-days ecological momentary assessment of daily anosmia and ageusia. Lower resting HRV and lower momentary levels of smell and taste sensitivity independently predicted impaired performance on the PRT. The present study provides insight into the general exacerbation of mental health issues worldwide due to COVID-19 pandemic.