Reward processing in adolescents with social phobia and depression

Objective: Impaired reward processing has been found in individuals with anxiety, but also major depres-sive disorder (MDD). Here, we studied neural correlates of reward anticipation and processing in a sam-ple of youth with severe social phobia and comorbid depression (SP/MDD) and investigated the specific contribution of SP and MDD symptoms.Methods: 15 affected, unmedicated and 25 typically developing (TD) youth completed a monetary gam-bling task, which included a positive, negative and ambiguous reward condition. Event-related potentials representing cue processing (cue P300), reward anticipation (stimulus preceding negativity, SPN), reward sensitivity (feedback related negativity, FRN) and reward processing (reward P300) were analysed.Results: Reduced amplitudes of the right hemispheric (r)SPN and reward P300 were observed in SP/MDD compared to TD. Within the SP/MDD group SP symptoms correlated with larger rSPN, and FRN ampli-tudes. MDD symptoms correlated with smaller rSPN and smaller FRN positive-negative difference wave.Conclusions: Reward anticipation and feedback processing are reduced in SP/MDD. Higher SP symptoms are associated with stronger neural activation during reward anticipation and reward sensitivity. Depressive symptoms are associated with decreased reward anticipation and sensitivity. Findings are in line with the theory of heightened vigilance in anxiety and blunted reward processing due to anhedo-nia in MDD.Significance: The study results can inform behavioural interventions for SP and MDD.(c) 2023 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study investigates the neural correlates of reward anticipation and processing in youth with severe social phobia and comorbid depression (SP/MDD). It finds that both SP and MDD symptoms contribute to reduced reward anticipation and processing, with SP symptoms associated with enhanced neural activation and MDD symptoms associated with decreased neural activity.