How Gains and Losses Influence the Brain and Behavior: Relations to Age, Risk for Depression, and Individual Differences

Behavioral and neural response to rewards and punishments has been the subject of a growing literature with particular interest within developmental, psychopathology, and individual difference domains. There is now mounting evidence suggesting that adolescents show heightened response to reward relative to adults, and that adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), elevated depressive symptoms, or at high-risk for depression show reduced response to reward. However, it is unclear whether similar relations between response to incentives and development/psychopathology are observed during childhood. Here we examine behavioral, neural (functional magnetic resonance imaging - fMRI), and self-reported responsiveness to gain and loss of rewards within healthy children and young adults. We relate observed neural/behavioral incentive responsiveness to 1) developmental stage, 2) risk for depression, and 3) self-reported incentive sensitivity. First, studies investigating developmental stage indicated that responsiveness to gain and loss of reward feedback show differing relations with age. Specifically, while children show elevated behavioral and neural (dorsal/posterior insula) response to loss of reward relative to adults, response to reward was similar across age groups. Second, we observed similar levels of both gain approach and loss avoidance behavior between healthy children at relatively high and low-risk for MDD, based on a positive/negative maternal history of MDD respectively. Third, across several studies both elevated gain approach and elevated loss avoidance behavior related to elevated self-reported incentive sensitivity as assessed via different questionnaire types (i.e. hedonic capacity, Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System, and anhedonic depressive scales). Interestingly, gain approach and loss avoidance behavior predicted unique variance in self-reported incentive sensitivity (BAS drive) and relations between incentive sensitivity and behavior did not differ based on age or depression risk status. Together these results highlight the importance of responsiveness to feedback signaling the loss of reward from both developmental and incentive sensitivity perspectives. Future work is needed to examine how gain and loss responsiveness during childhood prospectively predicts changes in incentive responsiveness over development and incidence of depression/changes in depressive symptoms

Brain-behavior relationships in the experience and regulation of negative emotion in healthy children: Implications for risk for childhood depression

Structural and functional alterations in a variety of brain regions have been associated with depression and risk for depression across the life span. A majority of these regions are associated with emotion reactivity and/or regulation. However, it is generally unclear what mechanistic role these alterations play in the etiology of depression. A first step toward understanding this is to characterize the relationships between variation in brain structure/function and individual differences in depression severity and related processes, particularly emotion regulation. To this end, the current study examines how brain structure and function predict concurrent and longitudinal measures of depression symptomology and emotion regulation skills in psychiatrically healthy school-age children (N = 60). Specifically, we found that smaller hippocampus volumes and greater responses to sad faces in emotion reactivity regions predict increased depressive symptoms at the time of scan, whereas larger amygdala volumes, smaller insula volumes, and greater responses in emotion reactivity regions predict decreased emotion regulation skills. In addition, larger insula volumes predict improvements in emotion regulation skills even after accounting for emotion regulation at the time of scan. Understanding brain–behavior relationships in psychiatrically healthy samples, especially early in development, will help inform normative developmental trajectories and neural alterations in depression and other affective pathology

Revising the BIS/BAS Scale to study development: Measurement invariance and normative effects of age and sex from childhood through adulthood.

Carver and White\u27s (1994) Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS) Scales have been useful tools for studying individual differences in reward-punishment sensitivity; however, their factor structure and invariance across development have not been well tested. In the current study, we examined the factor structure of the BIS/BAS Scales across 5 age groups: 6- to 10-year-old children (N = 229), 11- to 13-year-old early adolescents (N = 311), 14- to 16-year-old late adolescents (N = 353), 18- to 22-year-old young adults (N = 844), and 30- to 45-year-old adults (N = 471). Given poor fit of the standard 4-factor model (BIS, Reward Responsivity, Drive, Fun Seeking) in the literature, we conducted exploratory factor analyses in half of the participants and identified problematic items across age groups. The 4-factor model showed poor fit in our sample, whereas removing the BAS Fun Seeking subscale and problematic items from the remaining subscales improved fit in confirmatory factor analyses conducted with the second half of the participants. The revised model showed strict invariance across age groups and by sex, indicating consistent factor structure, item loadings, thresholds, and unique or residual variances. Additionally, in our cross-sectional data, we observed nonlinear relations between age and subscale scores, where scores tended to be higher in young adulthood than in childhood and later adulthood. Furthermore, sex differences emerged across development; adolescent and adult females had higher BIS scores than males in this age range, whereas sex differences were not observed in childhood. These differences may help us to understand the rise in internalizing psychopathology in adolescence, particularly in females. Future developmental studies are warranted to examine the impact of rewording problematic items

Kids, candy, brain and behavior: Age differences in responses to candy gains and losses

The development of reward-related neural systems, from adolescence through adulthood, has received much recent attention in the developmental neuroimaging literature. However, few studies have investigated behavioral and neural responses to both gains and losses in pre-pubertal child populations. To address this gap in the literature, in the present study healthy children aged 7–11 years and young-adults completed an fMRI card-guessing game using candy pieces delivered post-scan as an incentive. Age differences in behavioral and neural responses to candy gains/losses were investigated. Adults and children displayed similar responses to gains, but robust age differences were observed following candy losses within the caudate, thalamus, insula, and hippocampus. Interestingly, when task behavior was included as a factor in post hoc mediation analyses, activation following loss within the caudate/thalamus related to task behavior and relationships with age were no longer significant. Conversely, relationships between response to loss and age within the hippocampus and insula remained significant even when controlling for behavior, with children showing heightened loss responses within the dorsal/posterior insula. These results suggest that both age and task behavior influence responses within the extended reward circuitry, and that children seem to be more sensitive than adults to loss feedback particularly within the dorsal/posterior insula

Early Pubertal Timing Predicts Suicidality and Self-Injurious Behaviors in Preadolescents: Evidence for Concurrent and New-Onset Risk

Importance: New predictors of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) in preadolescence are urgently needed to address this escalating public health crisis of youth self-harm and suicidality. Early pubertal development is easily assessed and theoretically justified, yet strikingly absent from current conversations of SITB risk. Objective: Determine whether advanced puberty at age 9/10, relative to same-aged peers, predicts current and/or new-onset SITBs. Design: This longitudinal study used data from the baseline, 1-year, and 2-year follow-up waves of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study. Setting: Data were collected at 22 study sites in the US between 06/01/16 and 01/15/21. Participants: 11,878 preadolescents (baseline ages 9/10 years) and caregivers participated in the baseline wave. Exposure: Relatively advanced youth-reported pubertal development at 9/10 years. Main Measures: SITBs (suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and non-suicidal self-injury) as reported by preadolescents (each wave) and their caregiver (baseline, 2-year follow-up) in a computerized version of the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (KSADS). Results: Preadolescents with baseline self-reported puberty, KSADS (N=8,708; 44.6% female; 60.8% white non-Hispanic), and demographic information were included. Bayesian mixed-effects models were estimated for test and replication split halves. Baseline preadolescent-reported puberty predicted the presence of any SITB before or at baseline (OR=1.50, 2.5% CI=1.23, 97.5% CI=1.85). Baseline puberty also predicted new-onset SITBs between baseline and 2-year follow-up in preadolescents SITB-naive at baseline (OR=2.26, 2.5% CI=1.66, 97.5% CI=3.21). Findings were similar for each SITB independently and when controlling for other known SITB risk-factors (familial depression, parental monitoring, family conflict, total symptoms) in follow-up and replication analyses. Associations between puberty and SITBs did not differ meaningfully by sex, race, or ethnicity. Conclusions and Relevance: Preadolescents reporting relatively advanced puberty at 9/10 years were more likely to have previously experienced SITBs and, if SITB naïve, were more likely to experience onset of SITBs across the following two years. Findings were not explained by child psychopathology or other familial and psychosocial factors known to predict SITBs. Screening preadolescents for advanced puberty at age 9/10 and applying targeted suicide-screening for those youth showing advanced puberty should be considered in primary care and mental health settings

Longitudinal increases in reward-related neural activity in early adolescence: Evidence from event-related potentials (ERPs)

Adolescence is frequently described as a developmental period characterized by increased sensitivity to rewards. However, previous research on age-related changes in the neural response to gains and losses have produced mixed results, with only some studies reporting potentiated neural responses during adolescence. The current study examined the ERP responses to gains and losses during a simple monetary reward (i.e., Doors) task in a large and longitudinal sample of 248 adolescent females assessed at two time points, separated by two years. At baseline, when the sample was 8- to 14-years-old, age related to larger (i.e., more positive) ERP responses to both gains and losses; moreover, age-related effects were stronger in relation to gains than losses. Overall, the amplitude of the ERP response to gains, but not losses, significantly increased from baseline to follow-up; however, this effect was moderated by age, such that reward-related ERPs only increased longitudinally among the younger participants. At the follow-up assessment, ERP responses to gains and losses were equally related to age. Collectively, these within- and between-subjects findings suggest a relatively specific developmental increase in reward-related neural activity during late childhood and early adolescence. Keywords: Reward positivity, Reward, Adolescence, Development, Electroencephalogram, Event-related potential