Depression & anhedonia
Pleasure, motivation and reward processing in depression.
My academic path
Questions about living well and human suffering brought me from moral philosophy to psychology. Many of these questions took shape during my studies at Qom Islamic Seminary, which I entered in 2012. Alongside Arabic language and literature and Islamic jurisprudence, I studied philosophy. I increasingly wanted to understand how we can judge what is right and what reasons we have for choosing a way of life.
Studying moral philosophy and reading philosophical texts helped shape how I think. Descartes’ Discourse on the Method, in Mohammad Ali Foroughi’s Persian translation, was particularly influential. I came to take more seriously the reasons behind a belief, the need to clarify a question and the willingness to reconsider what I thought I knew. I continued these studies through Greek philosophy, ethics and philosophy of language.
During those years, volunteering with working children and women heading households brought my philosophical questions closer to everyday experience. For several years, I helped organise support programmes, took photographs and tutored children. I realised that knowing what is ethically right is not, by itself, enough to help. To support people and understand how change might become possible in their lives, I needed a more precise understanding of their experiences, behaviour and circumstances. That need played an important part in my decision to study psychology.
To enter the field, I first spent a year studying undergraduate psychology textbooks independently, reading and taking notes. The following year, I prepared for the master’s entrance examination. My ability to read English also improved, and I studied some of the material in its original language. After receiving a bachelor’s-equivalent seminary qualification in Islamic jurisprudence, I was admitted to the M.A. in General Psychology at the University of Tabriz in 2021.
At university, I became more interested in research methods and biological explanations. I wanted to formulate questions that could be investigated through observation and measurement. Neuroscience became increasingly appealing, and I continued studying it alongside psychology. Philosophy remained part of my reading and helped me frame questions and clarify concepts.
My thesis focused on anhedonia, the reduced or lost ability to experience pleasure, and intolerance of ambiguity, using Hiroto and Seligman’s learned helplessness task. I was also interested in the bodily aspects of these experiences, so I included galvanic skin response, blood pressure and heart rate as measures of physiological arousal.
I did not have access to a ready-made device for recording galvanic skin response. I obtained a sensor and an Arduino Uno board and assembled the components using the manufacturer’s instructions. With help from friends, I also used Python to receive and view the data on my laptop. This part of the thesis gave me a chance to apply my basic programming knowledge to a practical research problem. I completed the research and received my master’s degree. The manuscript based on the thesis is being revised in response to peer-review feedback and submitted for publication.
Alongside this work, my interests in evolution and neuroscience led me to questions about the human past: how did humans become human, and what is the history behind our minds and behaviour today? These questions also connected with my longstanding interest in archaeology and led me to choose Human Paleoneurology for translation. I co-translated the book with Leila Rezaei, with guidance from Mohammadreza Memarsadeghi. The Persian translation was published by Sham’ Avid in 2025.
I have also contributed to a collaborative translation of Universal Minds and translated the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Morality and Evolutionary Biology. Both translations are complete but have not yet been published. Working on these texts has given me a chance to pursue my philosophical and psychological interests alongside the study of evolution.
Another project began with a talk at a Darwin Day event. For that talk, I brought together evolutionary hypotheses about depression. I continued studying these accounts and developed the material into a narrative review, which is now being edited and prepared for submission. My aim is to introduce and explain different perspectives and provide a basis for new research questions.
My clinical training has continued alongside study and research. Training with Dr Azarakhsh Mokri and direct clinical supervision have influenced how I approach psychotherapy. Process-based therapy has been the main framework of this training, and I have also completed a cognitive behavioural therapy course with Dr Hassan Hamidpour. In this part of my work, I place great importance on listening to the individual’s experience and understanding the conditions in which their suffering develops and persists.
I intend to continue studying psychology at doctoral level. Depression, anhedonia and anxiety are central to my research interests, and I would like to study them through psychological processes, neuroscience and evolutionary perspectives. Moral psychology and the psychology of religion also interest me, in connection with my background in philosophy and religious studies. As I continue, I want to develop my ability to design and conduct research and work with researchers who share questions about the mind, behaviour and human suffering.