Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T11:32:31.978Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stressful life events moderate the effect of neural reward responsiveness in childhood on depressive symptoms in adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2019

Brandon L. Goldstein Open the ORCID record for Brandon L. Goldstein [Opens in a new window] ,
Ellen M. Kessel ,
Autumn Kujawa ,
Megan C. Finsaas ,
Joanne Davila ,
Greg Hajcak  and
Daniel N. Klein
Brandon L. Goldstein*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
Ellen M. Kessel
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
Autumn Kujawa
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
Megan C. Finsaas
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
Joanne Davila
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
Greg Hajcak
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Daniel N. Klein
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Brandon L. Goldstein, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Reward processing deficits have been implicated in the etiology of depression. A blunted reward positivity (RewP), an event-related potential elicited by feedback to monetary gain relative to loss, predicts new onsets and increases in depression symptoms. Etiological models of depression also highlight stressful life events. However, no studies have examined whether stressful life events moderate the effect of the RewP on subsequent depression symptoms. We examined this question during the key developmental transition from childhood to adolescence.

Methods

A community sample of 369 children (mean age of 9) completed a self-report measure of depression symptoms. The RewP to winning v. losing was elicited using a monetary reward task. Three years later, we assessed stressful life events occurring in the year prior to the follow-up. Youth depressive symptoms were rated by the children and their parents at baseline and follow-up.

Results

Stressful life events moderated the effect of the RewP on depression symptoms at follow-up such that a blunted RewP predicted higher depression symptoms in individuals with higher levels of stressful life events. This effect was also evident when events that were independent of the youth's behavior were examined separately.

Conclusions

These results suggest that the RewP reflects a vulnerability for depression that is activated by stress.

Keywords

Adolescentdepressiondevelopmental psychopathologydiathesis stressevent-related potentiallate childhoodRewPreward sensitivitystressful life events
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 50 , Issue 9 , July 2020 , pp. 1548 - 1555
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Auerbach, RP, Admon, R and Pizzagalli, DA (2014) Adolescent depression: stress and reward dysfunction. Harvard Review of Psychiatry 22, 139–148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Belden, AC, Irvin, K, Hajcak, G, Kappenman, ES, Kelly, D, Karlow, S, Luby, JL and Barch, DM (2016) Neural correlates of reward processing in depressed and healthy preschool-age children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 55, 1081–1089.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berenbaum, H and Connelly, J (1993) The effect of stress on hedonic capacity. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 102, 474–481.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogdan, R and Pizzagalli, DA (2006) Acute stress reduces reward responsiveness: implications for depression. Biological Psychiatry 60, 1147–1154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bress, JN and Hajcak, G (2013) Self-report and behavioral measures of reward sensitivity predict the feedback negativity. Psychophysiology 50, 610–616.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bress, JN, Smith, E, Foti, D, Klein, DN and Hajcak, G (2012) Neural response to reward and depressive symptoms in late childhood and early adolescence. Biological Psychology 89, 156–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bress, JN, Foti, D, Kotov, R, Klein, DN and Hajcak, G (2013) Blunted neural response to rewards prospectively predicts depression in adolescent girls. Psychophysiology 50, 74–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bress, JN, Meyer, A and Proudfit, GH (2015) The stability of the feedback negativity and its relationship with depression during childhood and adolescence. Development and Psychopathology 27, 1285–1294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, GW and Harris, T (1978) Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. Travistock Publications Limited: London.Google Scholar
Carlson, JM, Foti, D, Mujica-Parodi, LR, Harmon-Jones, E and Hajcak, G (2011) Ventral striatal and medial prefrontal BOLD activation is correlated with reward-related electrocortial activity: a combined ERP and fMRI study. NeuroImage 57, 1608–1616.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corral-Frías, NS, Nikolova, YS, Michalski, LJ, Baranger, DAA, Hariri, AR and Bogdan, R (2015) Stress-related anhedonia is associated with ventral stirautm reactivity to reward and trasndiagnostic psychiatric symptomatology. Psychological Medicine 45, 2605–2617.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dennison, M, Sheridan, MA, Busso, DS, Jenness, JL, Peverill, M, Rosen, ML and McLaughlin, KA (2016) Neurobehavioral markers of resilience to depression amongst adolescents exposed to child abuse. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 125, 1201–1212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eshel, N and Roiser, JP (2010) Reward and punishment processing in depression. Biological Psychiatry 68, 118–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finch, AJ Jr, Saylor, CF, Edwards, GL and McIntosh, JA (1987) Children's depression inventory: reliability over repeated administrations. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 16, 339–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, EE and Dahl, RE (2005) Neural systems of positive affect: relevance to understanding child and adolescent depression? Development and Psychopathology 17, 827–850.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forbes, EE and Dahl, RE (2012) Research review: altered reward function in adolescent depression: what, when and how? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 35, 3–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, EE, Christopher May, J, Siegle, GJ, Ladouceur, CD, Ryan, ND, Carter, CS, Birmaher, B, Axelson, DA and Dahl, RE (2006) Reward-related decision-making in pediatric major depressive disorder: an fMRI study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 47, 1031–1040.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foti, D and Hajcak, G (2009) Depression and reduced sensitivity to non-rewards versus rewards: evidence from event-related potentials. Biological Psychology 81, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foti, D, Kotov, R, Klein, DN and Hajcak, G (2011) Abnormal neural sensitivity to monetary gains versus losses among adolescents at risk for depression. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 39, 913–924.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldstein, BL and Klein, DN (2014) A review of selected candidate endophenotypes for depression. Clinical Psychology Review 35, 417–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gotlib, IH, Hamilton, JP, Cooney, RE, Singh, MK, Henry, ML and Joormann, J (2010) Neural processing of reward and loss in girls at risk for major depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 67, 380–387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammen, C (2006) Stress generation in depression: reflections on origins, research, and future directions. Journal of Clinical psychology 62, 1065–1082.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammen, CL, Gordon, D, Burge, D, Adrian, C, Jaenicke, C and Hiroto, D (1987) Maternal affective disorders, illness, and stress: risk for children's psychopathology. American Journal of Psychiatry 144, 736–741.Google ScholarPubMed
Hankin, BL, Mermelstein, R and Roesch, L (2007) Sex differences in adolescent depression: stress exposure and reactivity models. Child Development 78, 279–295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hanson, JL, Hariri, AR and Williamson, DE (2015) Blunted ventral striatum development in adolescence reflects emotional neglect and predicts depressive symptoms. Biological Psychiatry 78, 598–605.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harkness, KL and Monroe, SM (2016) The assessment and measurement of adult life stress: basic premises, operational principles, and design requirements. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 125, 727–745.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaufman, J, Birmaher, B, Brent, D, Rao, UM, Flynn, C, Moreci, P, Williamson, D and Ryan, N (1997) Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-age children-present and lifetime version (K-SADS-PL): initial reliability and validity data. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 36, 980–988.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS and Gardner, CO (2010) Dependent stressful life events and prior depressive episodes in the prediction of major depression: the problem of causal inference in psychiatric epidemiology. Archives of General Psychiatry 67, 1120–1127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS, Karkowski, LM and Prescott, CA (1999) Causal relationship between stressful life events and the onset of major depression. American Journal of Psychiatry 156, 837–841.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS, Gardner, CO and Prescott, CA (2002) Toward a comprehensive developmental model for major depression in women. American Journal of Psychiatry 159, 1133–1145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kercher, AJ, Rapee, RM and Schniering, CA (2009) Neuroticism, life events and negative thoughts in the development of depression in adolescent girls. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 37, 903–915.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keren, H, O'Callaghan, G, Vidal-Ribas, P, Buzzell, GA, Brotman, MA, Leibenluft, E, Pan, PM, Meffert, L, Kaiser, A, Wolke, S, Pine, DS and Stringaris, A (2018) Reward processing in depression: a conceptual and meta-analytic review across fMRI and EEG studies. American Journal of Psychiatry 175, 1111–1120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessel, EM, Kujawa, A, Hajcak Proudfit, G and Klein, DN (2015) Neural reactivity to monetary rewards and losses differentiates social from generalized anxiety in children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 56, 792–800.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, DN and Finsaas, MC (2017) The stony brook temperament study: early antecedents and pathways to emotional disorders. Child Development Perspectives 11, 257–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kovacs, M (1992) Children's depression inventory: manual. North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-Health Systems.Google Scholar
Kujawa, A and Burkhouse, KL (2017) Vulnerability to depression in youth: advances from affective neuroscience. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 2, 28–37.Google ScholarPubMed
Kujawa, A, Proudfit, GH and Klein, DN (2014) Neural reactivity to rewards and losses in offspring of mothers and fathers with histories of depressive and anxiety disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 123, 287–297.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kujawa, A, Proudfit, GH, Laptook, R and Klein, DN (2015) Early parenting moderates the association between parental depression and neural reactivity to rewards and losses in offspring. Clinical Psychological Science 3, 503–515.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kujawa, A, Hajcak, G and Klein, DN (2018) Reduced reward responsiveness moderates the effect of maternal depression on depressive symptoms in offspring: evidence across levels of analysis. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 60, 82–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, WH, Wang, LZ, Shang, HR, Shen, Y, Li, Z, Cheung, EF and Chan, RC (2014) The influence of anhedonia on feedback negativity in major depressive disorder. Neuropscyhologia 53, 213–220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luking, KR, Pagliaccio, D, Luby, JL and Barch, DM (2016 a) Depression risk predicts blunted neural responses to gains and enhanced response to loses in healthy children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 55, 328–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luking, KR, Pagliaccio, D, Luby, JL and Barch, DM (2016 b) Reward processing and risk for depression across development. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 20, 456–468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luking, KR, Nelson, BD, Infantolino, ZP, Sauder, CL and Hajcak, G (2018) Ventral striatal function interacts with positive and negative life events to predict concurrent youth depressive symptoms. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 1, 937–946.Google Scholar
McCabe, C, Woffindale, C, Harmer, CJ and Cowen, PJ (2012) Neural processing of reward and punishment in young people at increased familial risk of depression. Biological Psychiatry 72, 588–594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McFarland, BR and Klein, DN (2009) Emotional reactivity in depression: diminished responsiveness to anticipated reward but not to anticipated punishment or to nonreward or avoidance. Depression and Anxiety 26, 117–122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meehl, PE (1975) Hedonic capacity: some conjectures. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic 39, 295–307.Google ScholarPubMed
Muthén, L and Muthén, BO (2017) Mplus User's Guide (Version 8.0). Mplus user's guide (seventh edition) (Seventh Ed). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.Google Scholar
Nelson, BD, Perlman, G, Klein, DN, Kotov, R and Hajcak, G (2016) Blunted neural response to rewards as a prospective predictor of the development of depression in adolescent girls. American Journal of Psychiatry 173, 1223–1230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petersen, AC, Crockett, L, Richards, M and Boxer, A (1988) A self-report measure of pubertal status: reliability, validity, and initial norms. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 17, 117–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pizzagalli, DA (2014) Depression, stress, and anhedonia: toward a synthesis and integrated model. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 10, 393–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pizzagalli, DA, Jahn, AL and O'Shea, JP (2005) Toward an objective characterization of an anhedonic phenotype: a signal-detection approach. Biological Psychiatry 57, 319–327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pizzagalli, DA, Iosifescu, D, Hallett, LA, Ratner, KG and Fava, M (2009) Reduced hedonic capacity in major depressive disorder: evidence from a probabilistic reward task. Journal of Psychiatric Research 43, 76–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Proudfit, GH (2015) The reward positivity: from basic research on reward to a biomarker for depression. Psychophysiology 52, 449–459.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Proudfit, GH, Bress, JN, Foti, D, Kujawa, A and Klein, DN (2015) Depression and event related potentials: emotional disengagement and reward insensitivity. Current Opinion in Psychology 4, 110–113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rice, F, Harold, GT and Thapar, A (2003) Negative life events as an account of age-related differences in the genetic aetiology of depression in childhood and adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 44, 977–987.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robinson, OJ, Cools, R, Carlisi, CO, Sahakian, BJ and Drevets, WC (2012) Ventral striatum response during reward and punishment reversal learning in unmedicated major depressive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 169, 152–159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rudolph, KD and Hammen, CL (1999) Age and gender as determinant of stress exposure, generation and reactions in youngsters: a transactional perspective. Child and Development 70, 660–677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salk, RH, Hyde, JS and Abramson, LY (2017) Gender differences in depression in representative national samples: meta-analyses of diagnoses and symptoms. Psychological Bulletin 143, 783–822.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shrout, PE, Link, BG, Dohrenwend, BP, Skodol, AE, Stueve, A and Mirotznik, J (1989) Characterizing life events as risk factors for depression: the role of fateful loss events. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 98, 460–467.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stringaris, A, Vidal-Ribas Belil, P, Artiges, E, Lemaitre, H, Gollier-Briant, F, Wolke, S, Vulser, H, Miranda, R, Penttilä, J, Struve, M, Fadai, T, Kappel, V, Grimmer, Y, Goodman, R, Poustka, L, Conrod, P, Cattrell, A, Banashewski, T, Bokde, ALW, Bromberg, U, Büchel, C, Flor, H, Frouin, V, Gallinat, J, Garavan, H, Gowland, P, Heinz, A, Ittermann, B, Nees, F, Papadopoulos, D, Paus, T, Smolka, MN, Walter, H, Whelan, R, Martinot, JL, Schumann, G and Paillère-Martinot, ML and IMAGEN Consortium (2015) The brain's response to reward anticipation and depression in adolescence: dimensionality, specificity, and longitudinal predictions in a community-based sample. American Journal of Psychiatry 172, 1215–1223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stroud, CB, Davila, J, Hammen, C and Vrshek-Schallhorn, S (2011) Severe and nonsevere events in first onsets versus recurrences of depression: evidence for stress sensitization. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 120, 142–154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vrshek-Schallhorn, S, Stroud, CB, Mineka, S, Hammen, C, Zinbarg, RE, Wolitzky-Taylor, K and Craske, MG (2015) Chronic and episodic interpersonal stress as statistically unique predictors of depression in two samples of emerging adults. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 124, 918–932.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watson, D (2005) Rethinking the mood and anxiety disorders: a quantitative hierarchical model for DSM-V. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 114, 522–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Willner, P, Towell, A, Sampson, D, Sophokleous, S and Muscat, R (1987) Reduction of sucrose preference by chronic unpredictable mild stress, and its restoration by a tricyclic antidepressant. Psychopharmacology 93, 358–364.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Goldstein et al. supplementary material

Table S1

Download Goldstein et al. supplementary material(File)
File 13.1 KB