Declaration of Interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Acknowledgments The authors wish to acknowledge the work of Professor David Hill in conceiving and establishing the ASSAD and SHS surveys.
Over 20% of adolescents regularly smoke cigarettes (Centers http://www.selleckchem.com/products/PF-2341066.html for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2008), with the percentage of regular smokers doubling and the percentage of daily smokers tripling from mid to late adolescence (CDC, 2010; Johnston, O��Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2008). Hedonic capacity is one trait that may explain individual differences in adolescent smoking uptake. Hedonic capacity is a heritable, stable dispositional ability to experience pleasure in response to stimuli that are typically rewarding (Bogdan & Pizzagalli, 2009; Meehl, 1987, 2001).

It has received most attention as a hallmark characteristic of clinical depression (anhedonia), although it is relatively common for individuals to experience pleasure deficits without simultaneously experiencing other depression symptoms (Shafer, 2006; Watson, 2005). Hedonic capacity is a continuous construct that varies considerably among the general population (Fawcett, Clark, Scheftner, & Hedeker, 1983; Harvey, Pruessner, Czechowska, & Lepage, 2007; Meehl, 1975, 1987). At one end of the continuum are individuals who find a broad array of life experiences as rewarding and experience a high degree of pleasure in response to rewards. At the other end of the continuum are individuals who do not affectively respond fully to typical rewarding experiences.

It is thought that diminished responsiveness to typically rewarding stimuli reflects AV-951 a disruption of neural pathways implicated in reward and motivation (Nestler & Carlezon, 2006; Tremblay et al., 2005). It is these individuals that may come to rely on unnatural or pharmacological rewards for pleasure, such as smoking, to stimulate an underresponsive reward system. Although the ability to derive pleasure from natural reinforcers seems like a salient trait to consider in adolescent substance use, hedonic capacity has been relatively overlooked as a risk factor in adolescent smoking uptake. Since positive reinforcers are stimuli that increase the likelihood of behavior (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972), blunted responsiveness to natural reinforcers may lead to declines in those activities and a greater willingness to try pharmacological reinforcers, such as cigarettes. Thus, reduced hedonic capacity might predispose adolescents to smoke and to eventually become regular smokers. Until now, the role of hedonic capacity in smoking has only been examined in adults.