Cognitive, Behavioral, and Affective Responses to Reward: Links with Hypomanic Symptoms

The behavioral activation system, a motivational system relating to pursuit of incentives, has been hypothesized to be involved in the genesis of manic symptoms. The authors used laboratory measures to study how hypomanic symptoms predicted incentive–related outcomes in a student sample (N = 153). A reward for fast performance was offered part–way through a button–pressing task, and participants received both success feedback and a monetary reward. Measures included response time, positive affect, expectancy of future success, and goal setting on a subsequent task. Lifetime hypomanic vulnerability tended to predict, and current symptoms significantly predicted, higher success expectancy after reward. Lifetime hypomanic vulnerability related to higher goal–setting for future tasks after reward. Current hypomanic symptoms related to greater positive affect after reward. Discussion integrates these findings with previous evidence of achievement striving in bipolar disorder.