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Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Behavioral Tasks Targeting Brain Systems Relevant to Anhedonia

National Institutes of Health

NIMH is issuing this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) to encourage research on task-based behavioral measures that engage brain systems relevant to anhedonia. These behavioral measures are expected to be used as a proxy for brain target engagement, therefore neuroimaging or other brain measures with similar spatial resolution should be used to demonstrate that the proposed behavioral tasks engage brain systems relevant to anhedonia. The goal is to identify a battery of behavioral tasks that can be used as quantitative tools for future use in the evaluation of dysfunction within domains of mental health relevant to anhedonia and for future treatment development.

This NOSI recognizes the need to identify behavioral tasks that can be used as readouts for the engagement of specific brain systems postulated to be dysfunctional in anhedonia. Candidate behavioral tasks are expected to tap into functional domains implicated in anhedonia that can be reliably identified at neurobiological levels (e.g. neuroimaging). The outcomes sought are quantitative behavioral tasks that can be used in the future as a more precise way of defining clinical features of anhedonia for use in both diagnosis and treatment development. It is expected that the knowledge derived from these basic experimental research studies will help to establish links among dysfunctional brain circuits, domains of function, and symptoms of anhedonia while paving the way for back and forward translation, diagnosis and treatment development.

To be considered under this NOSI, applications should:

Propose behavioral tasks that target specific brain system(s) relevant to anhedonia.
Include neuroimaging and/or other brain activity recording techniques to demonstrate that the chosen task(s) engage the targeted brain subsystem.

This notice applies to due dates on or after February 5, 2024, and subsequent receipt dates through January 8, 2027.

NOT-MH-24-130