Characterizing within-person variance in, and menstrual cycle associations with, event-related potentials associated with positive and negative valence systems: The reward positivity and the error-related negativity.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are widely employed as measures of transdiagnostic cognitive processes that are thought to underlie various clinical disorders (Hajcak et al., 2019). Despite their prevalent use as individual difference measures, the effects of within-person processes, such as the human menstrual cycle, on a broad range of ERPs are poorly understood. The present study leveraged a within-subject design to characterize between- and within-person variance in ERPs as well as effects of the menstrual cycle in two frequently studied ERPs associated with positive and negative valence systems underlying psychopathology-the Reward Positivity (RewP) and the Error- Related Negativity (ERN). Seventy-one naturally-cycling participants completed repeated EEG and ecological momentary assessments of positive and negative affect in the menstrual cycle's early follicular, periovulatory, and mid-luteal phases. We examined the mean degree of change between cycle phases in both ERPs, the between-person variability in the degree of change in both ERPs, and whether an individual's degree of cyclical change in these ERPs show coherence with their degree of cyclical change in positive and negative affect recorded across the cycle. Results revealed no significant changes in positive and negative affect across the cycle and rather small changes in ERP amplitudes. Significant random slopes in our model revealed larger individual differences in trajectories of change in ERP amplitudes and affect, in agreement with prior evidence of heterogeneity in dimensional hormone sensitivity. Additionally, state-variance in these ERPs correlated with positive and negative affect changes across the cycle, suggesting that cycle-mediated ERP changes may have relevance for affect and behavior. Finally, exploratory latent class growth mixture modeling revealed subgroups of individuals that display disparate patterns of change in ERPs that should be further investigated.

Acute stress-induced reductions in neural response to reward are related to acute stress-related increases in cortisol.

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.

Examining a Fully Automated Mobile-Based Behavioral Activation Intervention in Depression: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Despite significant progress in our understanding of depression, prevalence rates have substantially increased in recent years. Thus, there is an imperative need for more cost-effective and scalable mental health treatment options, including digital interventions that minimize therapist burden. Objective: This study focuses on a fully automated digital implementation of behavioral activation (BA)-a core behavioral component of cognitive behavioral therapy for depression. We examine the efficacy of a 1-month fully automated SMS text message-based BA intervention for reducing depressive symptoms and anhedonia. Methods: To this end, adults reporting at least moderate current depressive symptoms (8-item Patient Health Questionnaire score ≥10) were recruited online across the United States and randomized to one of three conditions: enjoyable activities (ie, BA), healthy activities (ie, an active control condition), and passive control (ie, no contact). Participants randomized to enjoyable and healthy activities received daily SMS text messages prompting them to complete 2 activities per day; participants also provided a daily report on the number and enjoyment of activities completed the prior day. Results: A total of 126 adults (mean age 32.46, SD 7.41 years) with current moderate depressive symptoms (mean score 16.53, SD 3.90) were recruited. Participants in the enjoyable activities condition (BA; n=39) experienced significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms compared to participants in the passive condition (n=46). Participants in both active conditions-enjoyable activities and healthy activities (n=41)-reported reduced symptoms of anxiety compared to those in the control condition. Conclusions: These findings provide preliminary evidence regarding the efficacy of a fully automated digital BA intervention for depression and anxiety symptoms. Moreover, reminders to complete healthy activities may be a promising intervention for reducing anxiety symptoms.

Multiple Adaptive Attention-Bias-Modification Programs to Alter Normative Increase in the Error-Related Negativity in Adolescents.

In the current article, we examined the impact of two home-delivered attentional-bias-modification (ABM) programs on a biomarker of anxiety (i.e., the error-related negativity [ERN]). The ERN is sensitivity to ABM-related changes; however, it is unclear whether ABM exerts its influence on the ERN and anxiety by increasing general attentional control or by disengaging spatial allocation of attention. In this study, we measured the ERN, anxiety, attention bias, and attention control before and after two versions of ABM training and a waitlist control group in 546 adolescents. An ABM designed to increase attention control modulated the ERN but had no impact on anxiety. An ABM designed to reduce attentional bias changed bias and self-reported anxiety in youths but had no impact on the ERN or parent-reported anxiety. These results suggest that the ERN and normative anxiety may be modified using attention training.

Associations between physical activity, sedentary time, and neurocognitive function during adolescence: Evidence from accelerometry and the flanker P300.

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.

Neural response to monetary and social rewards in adolescent girls and their parents.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have indicated that the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system is heavily involved in all stages of reward processing. However, the majority of research has been conducted using monetary rewards and it is unclear to what extent other types of rewards, such as social rewards, evoke similar or different neural activation. There have also been few investigations into potential differences or similarities between reward processing in parents and offspring. The present study examined fMRI neural activation in response to monetary and social reward in a sample of 14-22-year-old adolescent girls (N = 145) and a biological parent (N = 124) and compared activation across adolescent-parent dyads (N = 82). Across all participants, both monetary and social reward elicited bilateral striatal activation, which did not differ between reward types or between adolescents and their parents. Neural activation in response to the different reward types were positively correlated in the striatum among adolescents and in the mPFC and OFC among parents. Overall, the present study suggests that both monetary and social reward elicit striatal activation regardless of age and provides evidence that neural mechanisms underlying reward processing may converge differentially among youth and adults.

Reward-Related Brain Activity Mediates the Relationship Between Decision-Making Deficits and Pediatric Depression Symptom Severity.

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.

Accelerometer-based and self-reported physical activity and sedentary time and their relationships with the P300 in a Go/No-Go task in older adults.

Older adults who experience cognitive decline are more likely to have a reduced quality of life. Identifying lifestyle factors that may influence cognitive processing and in turn improve quality of life during older adulthood is an important area of interest. Cognitive function, as measured by the P300 event-related potential (ERP), has been noted to be modified by physical activity; however, no study to date has examined relationships between this neurophysiological measure and physical activity and sedentary time in older adults. Furthermore, there is a gap in understanding as to whether physical activity and sedentary time assessed using self-reported and accelerometer-based methods similarly relate to the P300. This study aimed to assess the P300 during a Go/No-Go task in relation to self-reported and accelerometer-based physical activity and sedentary time in a community sample of 75 older adults. Results indicated that participants engaging in more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity had larger P300 amplitudes across self-reported and accelerometer-based measurements; however, no relationships between sedentary time and P300 amplitude were observed. Notably, accelerometer-based moderate-to-vigorous physical activity explained P300 amplitudes over and above self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity-an effect that remained significant even after accounting for age. Although these results highlight the importance of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in relation to cognitive function, as measured via the P300 in older adults, a secondary analysis indicated that engaging in lifestyle activity may have similar effects on the P300 as moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. In sum, the present study highlights the role of habitual engagement in physical activity as a possible means for supporting cognitive function during the aging process.

Electrocortical Reactivity During Self-Referential Processing Predicts the Development of Depression Across Adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Negative attentional biases and self-schemas have been implicated in the development of depression. Research has indicated that a larger late positive potential (LPP) to negative self-referential words is associated with depression-as well as a maternal history of depression, an indicator of risk. However, it is unclear whether the LPP to self-referential words predicts the actual development of depression. In the current study, we examined whether electrocortical reactivity during self-referential processing predicted the development of depression across adolescence. METHODS: The sample consisted of 165 8- to 14-year-old girls with no lifetime history of a depressive disorder who completed the self-referential encoding task while electroencephalography was recorded at a baseline assessment. Participants and their parent completed the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children at the baseline and 2-, 4-, and 6-year follow-up assessments. RESULTS: Results indicated that a larger LPP to negative self-referential words at baseline predicted an increased likelihood of developing chronic-intermittent depression (i.e., persistent and/or recurrent), but not nonchronic, single-episode depression, across adolescence. In contrast, neither self-referential encoding task recall biases nor the LPP to positive self-referential words predicted the development of either type of depression. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study suggest that electrocortical reactivity associated with a negative self-schema in late childhood predicts the development of a more pernicious subtype of depression across adolescence. Moreover, the current study highlights the importance of considering clinical course in the examination of biomarkers of risk for depression.

The associations among sleep-related difficulties, anxiety, and error-related brain activity in youth.

Given the high prevalence of anxiety disorders and their associated impairment, elucidating neural mechanisms related to these disorders has been increasingly prioritized. The error-related negativity (ERN) has been identified as a neural marker that indexes risk for anxiety across development. The ERN seems to confer risk for developing anxiety, especially in the context of stressful life events. The present study sought to examine sleep-related difficulties as another stressful factor that might impact the ERN. In a sample of 221 girls, aged 8 to 15 years old, we first examined the relationship between longer-term (i.e., over the past month) and shorter-term (i.e., over the past week) sleep difficulties and the ERN. We then investigated whether specific sleep difficulties uniquely predict the ERN. In exploratory analyses, we assessed whether sleep difficulties moderate the relationship between the ERN and anxiety. Results indicated that youth who report longer-term lower sleep duration, longer-term worse sleep, and shorter-term lower sleep duration on school days over the past week have a larger (i.e., more negative) ERN. Additionally, only shorter-term sleep duration on school days over the past week uniquely predicted the ERN. Finally, an elevated ERN predicted greater clinical anxiety in the context of longer-term sleep difficulties. Future studies should clarify the direction of these associations via longitudinal designs.

Antenatal anxiety symptoms outperform antenatal depression symptoms and suicidal ideation as a risk factor for postpartum suicidal ideation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Suicidal ideation (SI) during the postpartum phase is linked with suicide, a leading cause of death during this period. Antenatal depression and anxiety symptoms have both been linked with increased risk for postpartum SI. However, research aimed at examining the relative contributions of antenatal anxiety and depression symptoms towards postpartum SI remains nascent. In this study, we investigated the relative contribution of antenatal anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and SI towards postpartum SI. DESIGN: These data are from a longitudinal study in which American mothers were assessed during pregnancy and again at six- to eight weeks postpartum. METHODS: Data were analyzed using correlations and logistic regression models. RESULTS: Antenatal anxiety symptoms and antenatal depression symptoms were significantly correlated with postpartum SI. Results from a logistic regression model indicated that antenatal anxiety symptoms (T1; OR = 1.185 [1.125, 1.245], p = .004), but not antenatal depression symptoms (T1; OR = 1.018 [0.943, 1.093], p = .812) or antenatal SI (T1; OR = 1.58 [0.11, 22.29], p = 0.73), were significantly associated with postpartum SI. CONCLUSIONS: Antenatal anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and SI were positively associated with postpartum SI. When examined simultaneously, anxiety symptoms during the antenatal phase (but not depression symptoms or SI) predicted SI in the postpartum phase.

Neural response to monetary and social rewards and familial risk for psychopathology in adolescent females.

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a key developmental period for the emergence of psychopathology. Reward-related brain activity increases across adolescence and has been identified as a potential neurobiological mechanism of risk for different forms of psychopathology. The reward positivity (RewP) is an event-related potential component that indexes reward system activation and has been associated with both concurrent and family history of psychopathology. However, it is unclear whether the RewP is also associated with higher-order psychopathology subfactors and whether this relationship is present across different types of reward. METHODS: In a sample of 193 adolescent females and a biological parent, the present study examined the association between adolescent and parental psychopathology subfactors and adolescent RewP to monetary and social reward. RESULTS: Results indicated that the adolescent and parental distress subfactors were negatively associated with the adolescent domain-general RewP. The adolescent and parental positive mood subfactors were negatively associated with the adolescent domain-general and domain-specific monetary RewP, respectively. Conversely, the adolescent and parental fear/obsessions subfactors were positively associated with the adolescent domain-general RewP. The associations between parental and adolescent psychopathology subfactors and the adolescent RewP were independent of each other. CONCLUSIONS: The RewP in adolescent females is associated with both concurrent and parental psychopathology symptoms, suggesting that it indexes both severity and risk for higher-order subfactors.

Examining Blunted Initial Response to Reward and Recent Suicidal Ideation in Children and Adolescents Using Event-Related Potentials: Failure to Conceptually Replicate Across Two Independent Samples.

A recent study by Tsypes and colleagues (2019) found that children with recent suicidal ideation had blunted neural reward processing, as measured by the reward positivity (RewP), compared to 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; and n = 314, 49 with suicidal ideation at baseline) of children and adolescents (11 to 15 years and 8 to 15 years, 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 two 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.

The free-viewing matrix task: A reliable measure of attention allocation in psychopathology.

Aberrant attention allocation has been implicated in the etiology and maintenance of a range of psychopathologies. However, three decades of research, relying primarily on manual response-time tasks, have been challenged on the grounds of poor reliability of its attention bias indices. Here, in a large, multisite, international study we provide reliability information for a new eye-tracking-based measure of attention allocation and its relation to psychopathology and age. Data from 1567 participants, across a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses and ages, were aggregated from nine sites around the world. Of these, 213 participants also provided retest data. Acceptable overall internal consistency and test-retest reliability were observed among adult participants (Cronbach's alpha = 0.86 and r(213) = 0.89, respectively), as well as across all examined psychopathologies. Youth demonstrated lower internal consistency scores (Cronbach's alpha = 0.65). Finally, the percent dwell time index derived from the task statistically differentiated between healthy participants and participants diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, major depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. These results potentially address a long-standing reliability crisis in this research field. Aberrant attention allocation patterns in a variety of psychiatric disorders may be targeted with the hope of affecting symptoms. The attention allocation index derived from the matrix task offers reliable means to measure such cognitive target engagement in clinical contexts.

Effort and Appetitive Responding in Depression: Examining Deficits in Motivational and Consummatory Stages of Reward Processing Using the Effort-Doors Task.

Background: Reward sensitivity is a dimensional construct central to understanding the nature of depression. Psychophysiological research on this construct has primarily focused on the reward positivity, an event-related potential (ERP) that indexes consummatory reward sensitivity. This study extended prior research by focusing on ERPs that index the motivational component of reward. Methods: A novel effort-for-reward task was used to elicit motivational and consummatory ERPs. Groups consisting of 34 participants with depression and 32 participants without depression were compared across a range of reward-related ERPs. Results: Participants with depression exhibited reduced responsivity to effort completion cues following high effort expenditure, reduced anticipation of rewards after low effort expenditure (i.e., the stimulus preceding negativity), and reduced reward positivity following high effort expenditure. ERPs occurring prior to reward receipt accounted for unique variance in depression status and differentiated between subgroups of depressed individuals. Conclusions: Findings support the utility of leveraging multiple ERPs that index separate reward processing deficits to better characterize depression and depressive subtypes.

Cumulative lifetime acute stressor exposure interacts with reward responsiveness to predict longitudinal increases in depression severity in adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Life 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. METHOD: Participants 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. RESULTS: As 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. CONCLUSIONS: Lifetime 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.

The balance N1 and the ERN correlate in amplitude across individuals in small samples of younger and older adults.

The error-related negativity (ERN) is a neural correlate of error monitoring often used to investigate individual differences in developmental, mental health, and adaptive contexts. However, limited experimental control over errors presents several confounds to its measurement. An experimentally controlled disturbance to standing balance evokes the balance N1, which we previously suggested may share underlying mechanisms with the ERN based on a number of shared features and factors. We now measure whether the balance N1 and ERN are correlated across individuals within two small groups (N = 21 young adults and N = 20 older adults). ERNs were measured in arrow flanker tasks using hand and foot response modalities (ERN-hand and ERN-foot). The balance N1 was evoked by sudden slip-like movements of the floor while standing. The ERNs and the balance N1 showed good and excellent internal consistency, respectively, and were correlated in amplitude in both groups. One principal component strongly loaded on all three evoked potentials, suggesting that the majority of individual differences are shared across the three ERPs. However, there remains a significant component of variance shared between the ERN-hand and ERN-foot beyond what they share with the balance N1. It is unclear whether this component of variance is specific to the arrow flanker task, or something fundamentally related to error processing that is not evoked by a sudden balance disturbance. If the balance N1 were to reflect error processing mechanisms indexed by the ERN, balance paradigms offer several advantages in terms of experimental control over errors.

Drinking alcohol by mid-adolescence is related to reduced reward reactivity: Novel evidence of positive valence system alterations in early initiating female youth.

Initiation of alcohol use at younger ages is prognostic of later drinking problems. Reward system dysfunction is theorized to contribute to early initiation and escalation of drinking, but existing evidence supports both hyposensitivity and hypersensitivity as risk-markers; research employing effective indices of reward processing is needed for clarification. The reward positivity (RewP) is a well-established neurophysiological index of hedonic "liking," an important aspect of reward processing. Adult research has yielded conflicting findings, with different studies reporting reduced, enhanced, or null associations of RewP with engagement in or risk for harmful alcohol use. No study has examined relations between RewP and multiple indices of drinking in youth. Here, we examined how RewP measured in a gain/loss feedback task related to self-reported drinking initiation and past-month drinking, when accounting for age along with depression and externalizing symptoms, in 250 mid-adolescent females. Analyses showed that (1) compared to not-yet drinkers, adolescents endorsing drinking initiation responded less strongly to monetary gain (RewP) but not loss feedback (FN), and (2) past-month drinking was unrelated to both RewP and FN magnitude. These findings provide evidence for reduced hedonic "liking" as a concomitant of early drinking initiation in adolescent females and warrant further research with mixed-sex adolescent samples exhibiting greater drinking variability.

Relational victimization prospectively predicts increases in error-related brain activity and social anxiety in children and adolescents across two years.

Recent research has focused on identifying neural markers associated with risk for anxiety, including the error-related negativity (ERN). An elevated ERN amplitude has been observed in anxious individuals from middle childhood onward and has been shown to predict risk for future increases in anxiety development. The ERN is sensitive to environmental influences during development, including interpersonal stressors. Of note, one particular type of interpersonal stressor, relational victimization, has been related to increases in anxiety in adolescents. We tested whether relational victimization predicts increases in the ERN and social anxiety symptoms across two years in a sample of 152 child and adolescent females (ages 8 - 15). Results indicated that children and adolescents' baseline ERN was positively related to the ERN two years later. Furthermore, greater relational victimization at baseline predicted greater increases in the ERN two years later, controlling for baseline ERN. Moreover, relational victimization at baseline predicted increases in social anxiety, and this relationship was mediated by increases in the ERN. These results suggest that relational victimization impacts the developmental trajectory of the neural response to errors and thereby impacts increases in social anxiety among children and adolescents.