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Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Journal article
British Journal of Clinical Psychology · August 13, 2026
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This cross-sectional computational modelling study in 32 adolescent girls with depression and 33 healthy controls found that depressed participants showed reduced willingness to exert effort for reward, operationalised as lower accept rate and longer response time, with higher effort sensitivity on a hierarchical Bayesian discounting model. The pattern was modulated by apathy severity in controls but not in the depression group, and anhedonia showed no significant associations in either group. This identifies a mechanistic signature of motivational deficit but remains a single small study with surrogate endpoints; replication and validation against clinical outcomes are needed before clinical application.
Cross-sectional case-control computational modelling study. Adolescent girls with depression (n=32) and matched healthy controls (n=33); specific age range, recruitment source, depression diagnostic criteria, and matching variables not detailed in abstract.. Intervention: Physical effort-based decision-making task with varying effort levels and reward magnitudes.. Compared with: Matched healthy controls; also examined associations with apathy and anhedonia severity within groups.. n = 65.
Depression group exhibited lower accept rate and longer response time compared to healthy controls on the effort-based decision-making task. Depression group showed higher effort sensitivity on the hierarchical Bayesian discounting model. In healthy controls, higher apathy levels were associated with lower accept rate; no such association was observed for anhedonia.
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This study offers a computational framework for understanding motivational deficits in adolescent female depression, potentially relevant to future stratification or mechanism-targeted interventions. However, the surrogate nature of the endpoint and small sample size mean findings should not yet guide clinical practice; replication and linkage to clinical outcomes are essential.
Small, single-centre computational modelling study with surrogate behavioural endpoints in a narrow population; identifies mechanistic patterns but lacks the scale, replication, or clinical outcome data needed for stronger evidence grades.
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This study offers a computational framework for understanding motivational deficits in adolescent female depression, potentially relevant to future stratification or mechanism-targeted interventions. However, the surrogate nature of the endpoint and small sample size mean findings should not yet guide clinical practice; replication and linkage to clinical outcomes are essential.
Graded across the dimensions that decide whether you should act, each from what the source actually supports. There is no single score, and where a dimension was not assessed it says so.
Abstract Background Adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to depression, particularly in females. Motivational deficits are a hallmark of depression, yet the cognitive mechanisms underlying impaired effort‐based decision‐making (EBDM) in female adolescents remain poorly understood. Computational psychiatry addresses this by fitting mathematical models to behavioural data and extracting latent parameters, offering a more mechanistic view. Methods This study used computational modelling to investigate the distinct effects of apathy and anhedonia on effort‐based decision‐making in adolescent girls with depression. Thirty‐two adolescent girls with depression and 33 matched healthy controls performed a physical effort‐based decision‐making task. Participants accepted or rejected to exert different levels of physical effort to obtain different magnitudes of rewards or to avoid loss. Group differences were analysed utilizing a hierarchical Bayesian discounting model. Results The depression group exhibited a significantly reduced willingness to exert effort to obtain rewards, reflected by a lower accept rate and longer response time compared to the healthy control group. In line with this, the discounting model showed that the depression group had a higher effort sensitivity. Moreover, in the healthy control group, higher apathy levels were associated with a lower accept rate, whereas no such associations were observed for anhedonia; in the depression group, no significant associations were found for either apathy or anhedonia. Conclusions This study identifies a computational signature of motivational deficits in female adolescent depression, characterized by oversensitivity to effort expenditure and modulated by apathy severity. By focusing on female adolescents, our findings highlight sex‐specific mechanisms underpinning vulnerability to depression.
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