Negative cognitions and self-views are proposed to contribute to the onset and maintenance of depression. Biased self-referential processing has been documented in depression using behavioral (recall bias) and neural (late positive potential [LPP] event-related potential) measures in response to positive and negative words. However, it remains unclear whether such biases reflect a vulnerability (i.e., are evident even outside of a depressive episode) or are mood-dependent (i.e., evident only during a depressive episode). In this study, 33 adults with current depression (Mage = 41.87 years; 84.4% female), 19 adults with remitted depression (Mage = 39.61 years; 78.9% female), and 30 never-depressed controls (Mage = 39.15 years; 80% female) completed a self-referential encoding task (SRET) including positive and negative words. Behavioral recall biases and LPP (referenced to averaged mastoids) responses during early (automatic processing) and late (sustained, elaborative engagement) windows were assessed. Behaviorally, adults with current and remitted depression exhibited greater negative and reduced positive recall bias compared to controls. Neurally, adults with current depression showed a blunted early LPP to positive words and reduced late LPPs overall, suggesting deficits in both automatic and sustained, elaborative self-referential processing. The remitted depression group demonstrated intermediate responses, falling between current and never-depressed controls. Findings indicate that behavioral measures may capture trait-like negative self-referential bias independent of depressed mood, while neural measures revealed stage-specific deficits providing unique insight into depression. Future research should employ longitudinal designs to determine whether behavioral and neural measures reflect vulnerability or mood-dependent processes.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) have practical utility in clinical psychology as neural markers of individual differences that can predict changes in symptoms over time and as a function of treatment. Implementation in clinical settings, however, would benefit from eliminating conductive gel. Dry electrode EEG systems exist; however, there is little research comparing ERPs recorded from dry and gel-based electrode EEG systems. In the current study, participants completed the flanker task and the doors task in counter-balanced order to elicit the error-related negativity (ERN) and reward positivity (∆RewP), respectively. Across both tasks, the gel-based EEG system produced larger magnitude ERPs with higher signal-to-noise ratio; however, ERPs recorded from both EEG systems had good internal consistency. In addition, the ERPs from both systems showed good convergent and divergent validity, indicating that both systems are capturing similar variance in error- and reward-related brain activity. Overall, the dry electrode EEG system recorded ERPs with good data quality that may be used in individual differences research implemented in clinical settings and related environments.

BACKGROUND:The mechanisms that link neural and behavioral indices of reduced reward sensitivity in depression, particularly in children, remain unclear. Reward positivity (RewP), a neural index of reward processing, has been consistently associated with depression. Separately, recent studies using the drift-diffusion model on behavioral data have delineated computational indices of reward sensitivity. Therefore, in the current study, we examined whether RewP is a neural mediator of drift-diffusion model-based indices of reward processing in predicting pediatric depression across varying levels of symptom severity. METHODS:A community sample of 166 girls, ages 8 to 14 years, completed 2 tasks. The first was a reward guessing task from which RewP was computed using electroencephalography; the second was a probabilistic reward-based decision-making task. On this second task, drift-diffusion model analysis was applied to behavioral data to quantify the efficiency of accumulating reward-related evidence (drift rate) and potential baseline bias (starting point) toward the differently rewarded choices. Depression severity was measured using the self-report Children's Depression Inventory. RESULTS:RewP was correlated with drift rate, but not starting point bias, toward the more rewarded choice. Furthermore, RewP completely mediated the association between a slower drift rate toward the more rewarded option and higher depression symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings suggest that reduced neural sensitivity to reward feedback may be a neural mechanism that underlies behavioral insensitivity to reward in children and adolescents with higher depression symptom severity, offering novel insights into the relationship between neural and computational indices of reward processing in this context.

Physical activity and sedentary behavior are two lifestyle factors related to overall health during adolescence. Public health efforts emphasize the importance of increasing physical activity to improve physical and mental health outcomes, including neurocognitive functioning. However, the unique effects of sedentary behavior on neurocognitive functioning remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate associations between daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), sedentary time, and neurocognitive functioning during adolescence. Fifty-seven participants (37% female) between the ages of 13 and 17 years wore an accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist for approximately 1 week to quantify daily MVPA and sedentary time prior to completing a flanker task to elicit P300 amplitude at a laboratory visit. Results indicated that daily MVPA and sedentary time exhibited unique, significant associations with P300 amplitude in opposing directions: increased daily MVPA was correlated with larger P300 amplitudes, while increased daily sedentary time was linked to reduced P300 amplitudes. Notably, these associations remained significant even after adjusting for age, sex, and BMI-for-age percentile. These findings underscore the independent influence of daily MVPA and sedentary time on neurocognitive functioning during adolescence. Future research should explore whether modifying MVPA levels can improve neurocognitive outcomes—including the P300—during adolescence, and determine whether reducing sedentary time results in similar or differential effects.

Stressors and blunted reward processing are implicated in depression. The current study simultaneously examined the impact of an acute stressor on cortisol and reward processing, measured using the reward positivity (RewP) in 66 participants. Participants completed a reward task during a stressor and a control condition, counterbalanced, and separated by 1 week, while saliva samples were collected before, immediately following, and 25 min after the reward task. Participants reported that the stressor condition was more stressful than the control condition. Cortisol levels did not differ before the reward task; however, cortisol levels were higher both immediately and 25 min after the task. The RewP was blunted during the stressor compared to the control condition, and participants with a larger stress-induced increase in cortisol had greater reductions in their RewP. The current study provides evidence that stress-induced changes in HPA-axis functioning relate to reductions in neural correlates of reward processing.

A previous study found that children with recent suicidal ideation had blunted neural reward processing (as measured by the reward positivity), compared with matched controls, and that this difference was driven by reduced neural responses to monetary loss rather than to reward. Here, we aimed to conceptually replicate and extend these findings in two samples (n = 264, 27 with suicidal ideation; n = 314, 49 with suicidal ideation at baseline) of children and adolescents (11–15 years old and 8–15 years old, respectively). Results from both samples showed no evidence that children and adolescents with suicidal ideation have abnormal reward or loss processing nor that reward processing predicts suicidal ideation 2 years later. The results highlight the need for greater statistical power as well as continued research examining the neural underpinnings of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Background: The late positive potential (LPP) to pleasant content is an electrocortical indicator of blunted emotional reactivity in depression. A reduced time-frequency delta power has never been investigated in clinical samples. The present study examined time-frequency delta in depression and at investigated whether the combination of time-domain and time-frequency data would explain additional variance in the depression status. Methods: The study was a secondary analysis of data collected during a passive viewing task of pleasant and neutral pictures in a community-based sample of 75 participants with a current depressive disorder and 42 controls. A time-frequency analysis on event-related changes within delta frequency band was conducted. Results: Cluster-based statistics revealed a centro-parietal increase in delta power to pleasant relative to neutral pictures in the control group but not within the depression group. Moreover, a fronto-centro-parietal reduction in delta power to pleasant pictures emerged in depression relative to controls. Both a smaller LPP and delta power to pleasant pictures were related to depression status. The combination of LPP and delta power explained a greater amount of variance compared to the model where LPP was entered as the only predictor of depression status. Conclusions: These data suggest that delta power might be a promising electrocortical correlate of the hypo activation of the approach-related motivational system in depression. Additionally, a blunted delta and LPP might reflect unique processes related to depression. A combination of these measures can be leveraged together to enhance clinical utility and to shed light on the underlying mechanisms associated with depression.

AbstractBackgroundLife stress and blunted reward processing each have been associated with the onset and maintenance of major depressive disorder. However, much of this work has been cross-sectional, conducted in separate lines of inquiry, and focused on recent life stressor exposure, despite the fact that theories of depression posit that stressors can have cumulative effects over the lifespan. To address these limitations, we investigated whether acute and chronic stressors occurring over the lifespan interacted with blunted reward processing to predict increases in depression over time in healthy youth.MethodParticipants were 245 adolescent girls aged 8–14 years old (Mage = 12.4, s.d. = 1.8) who were evaluated at baseline and two years later. The reward positivity (RewP), an event-related potential measure of reward responsiveness, was assessed at baseline using the doors task. Cumulative lifetime exposure to acute and chronic stressors was assessed two years later using the Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adolescents (Adolescent STRAIN). Finally, depressive symptoms were assessed at both baseline and follow-up using the Children's Depression Inventory.ResultsAs hypothesized, greater lifetime acute stressor exposure predicted increases in depressive symptoms over two years, but only for youth exhibiting a blunted RewP. This interaction, however, was not found for chronic stressors.ConclusionsLifetime acute stressor exposure may be particularly depressogenic for youth exhibiting a blunted RewP. Conversely, a robust RewP may be protective in the presence of greater acute lifetime stressor exposure.

BACKGROUND: Although research has found that life stress is associated with reward-related brain activity, few studies have examined how cumulative stressors occurring over the entire lifetime affect reward processing during adolescence. METHODS: To address this issue, we investigated how lifetime stressor exposure related to reward processing, indexed by the reward positivity, in 240 adolescent girls between ages 8 and 14 years (mean age = 12.4). Participants were followed for 2 years. They completed a reward task at baseline and follow-up and the Stress and Adversity Inventory at follow-up. RESULTS: As hypothesized, greater lifetime stressor exposure was related to a blunted reward positivity at the follow-up session while controlling for baseline age, baseline reward positivity, and time between assessments. Furthermore, this association was evident for acute but not chronic lifetime stressors. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that the development of adaptive reward processing may be adversely affected by experiencing major life stressors. The results may thus have implications for understanding how stressors increase risk for psychopathology, such as major depressive disorder.

BACKGROUND:Although corporal punishment is a common form of punishment with known negative impacts on health and behavior, how such punishment affects neurocognitive systems is relatively unknown. METHODS:To address this issue, we examined how corporal punishment affected neural measures of error and reward processing in 149 adolescent boys and girls of ages 11 to 14 years (mean age [SD] = 11.02 [1.16]). Corporal punishment experienced over the lifetime was assessed using the Stress and Adversity Inventory. In addition, participants completed a flankers task and a reward task to measure the error-related negativity and reward positivity, respectively, as well as measures of anxiety and depressive symptoms. RESULTS:As hypothesized, participants who experienced lifetime corporal punishment reported more anxiety and depressive symptoms. Experiencing corporal punishment was also related to a larger error-related negativity and blunted reward positivity. Importantly, corporal punishment was independently related to a larger error-related negativity and a more blunted reward positivity beyond the impact of harsh parenting and lifetime stressors. CONCLUSIONS:Corporal punishment appears to potentiate neural response to errors and decrease neural response to rewards, which could increase risk for anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Research has consistently demonstrated a relationship between peer victimization, a major issue in early adolescence, and depression. However, longitudinal studies examining the relationship between peer victimization and depressive symptoms have yielded mixed results. Thus, the current study examined how specific aspects of peer victimization and subtypes of depressive symptoms are related over a two-year period. Adolescent females (N = 265) completed a questionnaire battery at baseline and two-year follow-up. Results indicated that baseline depressive symptoms prospectively predict peer overt victimization, relational victimization, and decreased prosocial behaviors at follow-up; baseline peer victimization did not predict depressive symptoms at follow-up. Further, results demonstrate the differential predictive value of specific depressive symptoms for overt vs. relational aggression and decreased prosocial behavior. Taken together, this study provides insight into the impact of depressive symptoms on peer victimization and the importance of addressing peer relations in the context of treatment for adolescent depression.

Stress and blunted reward processing are risk factors for mood disorders, including Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The experience of acute stress reduces fMRI correlates of reward-related neural activity; however, few studies have examined how acute stress impacts measures of reward derived from event-related potentials (ERPs). The current study examined the impact of an acute stressor on the Reward Positivity (RewP), an ERP that indexes reward sensitivity, in twenty-seven college students. Participants completed a monetary reward task while they placed their left hand in cold water set at 13 degrees Celsius (i.e., acute stress condition) and again while their hand was placed in room temperature water (i.e., control condition). These conditions were separated by one week and performed in a counter-balanced order across participants. The results revealed that the RewP amplitude was blunted in the acute stress condition compared to the control condition. Moreover, there was a trend toward this effect interacting with self-reported depressive symptoms: the RewP was only reduced among individuals who reported low depressive symptoms. The current study suggests that an acute stressor reduces the RewP, and that this effect might be moderated by current depressive symptoms. Future studies might examine the temporal association between reward processing and stress —and how they interact to predict depressive symptoms.