Blunted neural response to rewards prospectively predicts depression in adolescent girls

• DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2012.01485.x
• Publication Date: 2012-12-18T21:45:33Z
• Authors: Jennifer N. Bress; Dan Foti; Roman Kotov; Daniel N. Klein; Greg Hajcak
• Keywords: Depression; Negativity effect; Major depressive episode

Abstract The prevalence of depression increases substantially during adolescence. Several predictors major depressive disorder have been established, but their predictive power is limited. In the current study, feedback negativity ( FN ), an event‐related potential component elicited by indicating monetary gain versus loss, was recorded in 68 never‐depressed adolescent girls. Over following 2 years, 24% participants developed a episode MDE ); illness onset predicted blunted at initial evaluation. Lower amplitude more symptoms follow‐up period, even after controlling for neuroticism and baseline. This first prospective study to demonstrate link between neural measure reward sensitivity . results suggest that low may be important factor development depression.