Feedback indicating monetary loss elicits an apparent negative deflection in the event-related potential (ERP) that has been referred to as the feedback error-related negativity, medial frontal negativity, feedback-related negativity, and feedback negativity-all conceptualizations that suggest a negative ERP component that is greater for loss than gain. In the current paper, I review a programmatic line of research indicating that this apparent negativity actually reflects a reward-related positivity (RewP) that is absent or suppressed following nonreward. I situate the RewP within a broader nomological network of reward processing and individual differences in sensitivity to rewards. Further, I review work linking reductions in the RewP to increased depressive symptoms and risk for depression. Finally, I discuss future directions for research on the RewP.

Despite the alarming increase in the prevalence of depression during adolescence, particularly among female adolescents, the pathophysiology of depression in adolescents remains largely unknown. Event-related potentials (ERPs) provide an ideal approach to investigate cognitive-affective processes associated with depression in adolescents, especially in the context of negative self-referential processing biases. In this study, healthy (n = 30) and depressed (n = 22) female adolescents completed a self-referential encoding task while ERP data were recorded. To examine cognitive-affective processes associated with self-referential processing, P1, P2, and late positive potential (LPP) responses to negative and positive words were investigated, and intracortical sources of scalp effects were probed using Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA). Additionally, we tested whether key cognitive processes (e.g., maladaptive self-view, self-criticism) previously implicated in depression related to ERP components. Relative to healthy female subjects, depressed females endorsed more negative and fewer positive words, and free recalled and recognized fewer positive words. With respect to ERPs, compared to healthy female adolescents, depressed adolescents exhibited greater P1 amplitudes following negative words, which was associated with a more maladaptive self-view and self-criticism. In both early and late LPP responses, depressed females showed greater activity following negative versus positive words, whereas healthy females demonstrated the opposite pattern. For both P1 and LPP, LORETA revealed reduced inferior frontal gyrus activity in response to negative words in depressed versus healthy female adolescents. Collectively, these findings suggest that the P1 and LPP reflect biased self-referential processing in female adolescents with depression. Potential treatment implications are discussed.

Objective The feedback negativity (FN) is an event-related potential that differentiates unfavorable versus favorable outcomes. Although thought to reflect error-related activity within the anterior cingulate cortex, recent work indicates the FN may also reflect reward-related activity that has been linked to the basal ganglia. To date, it remains unclear how to reconcile these conflicting perspectives. Methods We decomposed the FN by applying time-frequency analysis to isolate activity unique to monetary losses and gains. The FN was recorded from 84 individuals during a laboratory gambling task. Results Two signals contributed to the FN elicited by unpredictable outcomes: theta activity (4-7 Hz) was increased following monetary loss, and delta activity (< 3 Hz) was increased following monetary gain. Predictable outcomes elicited delta but not theta activity. Source analysis revealed distinct generators, with loss-related theta localized to the anterior cingulate cortex and gain-related delta to a possible source in the striatum. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress reactivity were specifically associated with blunted gain-related delta. Conclusions The FN may be a composite of loss- and gain-related neural activity, reflecting distinct facets of reward processing. Significance Gain-related delta activity may provide unique information about reward dysfunction in major depression and other internalizing psychopathology.

Reward dysfunction is thought to play a core role in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). Event-related potential (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified reward processing deficits in MDD, but these methods have yet to be applied together in a single MDD sample. We utilized multimodal neuroimaging evidence to examine reward dysfunction in MDD. Further, we explored how neurobiological reward dysfunction would map onto subtypes of MDD. The feedback negativity (FN), an ERP index of reward evaluation, was recorded in 34 unmedicated depressed individuals and 42 never-depressed controls during a laboratory gambling task. Ventral striatal (VS) activation to reward was recorded in a separate fMRI session, using an identical task, among a subgroup of 24 depressed individuals and a comparison group of 18 non-depressed controls. FN amplitude was blunted in MDD. This effect was driven by a MDD subgroup characterized by impaired mood reactivity to positive events, a core feature of melancholic MDD. A similar pattern was observed for VS activation, which was also blunted among the MDD subgroup with impaired mood reactivity. Neither FN amplitude nor VS activation were related to the full, DSM-defined melancholic or atypical MDD subtypes. Across the MDD sample, FN amplitude and VS activation were correlated, indicating convergence across methods. These results indicate that not all MDD is characterized by reward dysfunction, and that there is meaningful heterogeneity in reward processing within MDD. The current study offers neurobiological evidence that impaired mood reactivity is a key phenotypic distinction for subtyping MDD, and further suggests that the existing melancholic phenotype may require further refinement.

Depression appears to be characterized by reduced neural reactivity to receipt of reward. Despite evidence of shared etiologies and high rates of comorbidity between depression and anxiety, this abnormality may be relatively specific to depression. However, it is unclear whether children at risk for depression also exhibit abnormal reward responding, and if so, whether risk for anxiety moderates this association. The feedback negativity (FN) is an event-related potential component sensitive to receipt of rewards versus losses that is reduced in depression. Using a large community sample (N=407) of 9-year old children who had never experienced a depressive episode, we examined whether histories of depression and anxiety in their parents were associated with the FN following monetary rewards and losses. Results indicated that maternal history of depression was associated with a blunted FN in offspring, but only when there was no maternal history of anxiety. In addition, greater severity of maternal depression was associated with greater blunting of the FN in children. No effects of paternal psychopathology were observed. Results suggest that blunted reactivity to rewards versus losses may be a vulnerability marker that is specific to pure depression, but is not evident when there is also familial risk for anxiety. In addition, these findings suggest that abnormal reward responding is evident as early as middle childhood, several years prior to the sharp increase in the prevalence of depression and rapid changes in neural reward circuitry in adolescence.

Threatening stimuli have been shown to preferentially capture attention using a range of tasks and measures. However, attentional bias to threat has not typically been found in unselected individuals using behavioral measures in the dot-probe task, one of the most common ways of examining attention to threat. The present study leveraged event-related potentials (ERPs) in conjunction with behavioral measures in the dot-probe task to examine whether more direct measures of attention might reveal an attentional bias to threat in unselected individuals. As in previous dot-probe studies, we found no evidence of an attentional bias to threat using reaction time; additionally, this measure exhibited poor internal reliability. In contrast, ERPs revealed an initial shift of attention to threat-related stimuli, reflected by the N2pc, which showed moderate internal reliability. However, there was no evidence of sustained engagement with the threat-related stimuli, as measured by the late positive potential (LPP). Together, these results demonstrate that unselected individuals do initially allocate attention to threat in the dot-probe task, and further, that this bias is better characterized by neural measures of attention than traditional behavioral measures. These results have implications for the study of attention to threat in both unselected and anxious populations.

Feedback negativity (FN) is an event-related potential elicited by monetary reward and loss; it is thought to relate to reward-related neural activity and has been linked to depression in children and adults. In the current study, we examined the stability of FN, and its relationship with depression in adolescents, over 2 years in 45 8- to 13-year-old children. From Time 1 to Time 2, FN in response to monetary loss and in response to monetary gain showed moderate to strong reliability (rs = .64 and .67, respectively); these relationships remained significant even when accounting for related variables. FN also demonstrated high within-session reliability. Moreover, the relationship between a blunted FN and greater depression observed at Time 1 was reproduced at Time 2, and the magnitude of FN at Time 1 predicted depressive symptomatology at Time 2. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that FN and its relationship with depression remain consistent over the course of development, and that FN may prospectively predict later depressive symptomatology. The current results suggest that FN may be suitable as a biomarker of depressive symptoms during adolescence.

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