This study investigates if anhedonia and anxiety symptoms are associated with alterations in reinforcement learning, effort trade-offs for wins vs. punishments, and foraging behavior under threat. Moreover, it will investigate whether these processes can be influenced by a metabolic load and/or transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS). The project consists of (a) an online reinforcement learning study, used to characterize learning, reward sensitivity, and meta-cognition, and (b) a laboratory study in which participants first undergo fMRI while completing an effort-based decision-making task. Second, participants will complete two sessions in VR with randomized active or sham tVNS during a foraging task before and after a caloric load with concurrent physiological recordings.
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Stimulation-induced changes in the number of rewards collected under threat (VR foraging task)
Timeframe: During each stimulation session (tVNS and sham) throughout study completion (approximately 3 weeks)
BOLD response during the effort-trade-off task (offer-phase)
Timeframe: Collected during fMRI session (single session throughout study completion ~35min per participant)
Reward learning
Timeframe: Online task performance assessed online before lab-visits (approximately 10 days)
Metabolic state x stimulation-induced changes in the number of rewards collected under threat (VR task)
Timeframe: During each stimulation session (tVNS and sham) throughout study completion (approximately 3 weeks)