Three-minute smartphone game reveals rigid reward expectations in depression

A NYU Langone Health study published in PNAS shows that people with major depressive disorder hold a higher internal baseline for rewards and are less able to adapt their expectations when rewards change. In a three-minute smartphone game, depressed participants stopped harvesting a depleting tree earlier (after about eight to nine apples) than healthy controls, indicating a higher decisional reference point. A second task revealed that depressed individuals showed inflexibility in adjusting their willingness to pay after environmental adaptation. The findings offer a potential remote-measurement tool for depression and point to a cognitive mechanism that could become a therapeutic target, though subtypes and broader applicability require further research.