Neural Indices of Social and Monetary Reward Processing as Predictors of Real-World Pleasure and Affect in Adolescents at Risk for Depression

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide and a critical public health problem. Of particular concern are the high rates of MDD during adolescence, which have continued to increase in recent years. Importantly, the emergence of depression during adolescence is associated with future major depressive episodes in adulthood and risk for suicide. Theorists have proposed that the spike in rates of depression observed during adolescence may be due, at least in part, to neurobiological and psychosocial changes that occur during this period, including changes in reward processing. Importantly, aberrant neural reward processing in adolescents is associated with current depressive symptoms and predicts the onset of future depressive episodes. However, most of this research has focused on adolescents’ neural responses to monetary reward, despite research showing that social rewards are especially salient for this age group. Further, a large majority of this research is confined to laboratory settings and relatively little is known about how laboratory-based measures of reward processing translate to real-world experiences of pleasure and affect. This proposed study aims to address the limitations of extant research by examining event related potential (ERP) indices of social and monetary reward processing in adolescents at heightened risk of developing MDD (maternal history of MDD). After completing the laboratory-based reward tasks, adolescents will complete 7 days of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys to assess real-world levels of pleasure and affect in their daily lives. Specific Aim 1 is to determine whether laboratory-based measures of reward outcome processing predict real- world levels of consummatory pleasure and affect among adolescents at risk for MDD. Specific Aim 2 is to evaluate whether monetary or social reward processing is a stronger predictor of real-world reports of pleasure and daily affect. In addressing these aims, I also seek to address another limitation of existing research. Specifically, the overwhelming majority of ERP reward processing research focuses on the reward positivity (RewP), which only indexes one subcomponent of reward outcome processing even though other substages can be reliably assessed with ERPs (e.g., feedback-P3 and feedback-LPP). Therefore, although primary analyses will focus on the RewP to be consistent with prior research, exploratory analyses will examine whether the predictive validity of the feedback-P3 and feedback-LPP. These research aims are complemented by a series of training goals designed to facilitate the applicant’s development into an independent researcher. These training goals are to (i) gain expertise in collecting and processing EEG/ERP data using reward paradigms, (ii) develop specialized skills in designing, collecting, and processing reward-relevant EMA data in adolescents, and (iii) strengthening the applicant’s knowledge of intensive longitudinal data analysis. This project has the potential to make significant contributions to the literature on biomarkers of depression risk and will provide the training necessary for the applicant to become an independent researcher focused on risk for depression in adolescents.