The Development of Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors Among Youth With or Without a Family History of Substance Use Disorder: The Indirect Effects of Early-Life Stress and Impulsivity

Depressive rumination has been conceptualized as a mental habit that is initiated automatically without conscious awareness, intent or control in response to negative mood. However, it is unknown whether depression vulnerability is characterized by elevated levels of mood-reactive rumination at the level of short-term dynamics. Using mobile ecological momentary assessment, formerly depressed individuals with a recurrent history of depression (n = 94) and non-clinical controls (n = 55) recorded in-the-moment affect and rumination ten times daily over six days, after completing measures of trait ruminative brooding, early-life stress, and habitual characteristics of negative thinking (e.g., automaticity, lack of conscious awareness, intent, and control). Momentary fluctuations in negative affect were prospectively associated with greater rumination at the next sampling occasion in formerly depressed participants whereas this pattern was not observed in non-clinical controls. In formerly depressed participants, the degree of mood-reactivity was moderated by habitual characteristics of negative thinking, which interacted with a history of early-life stress in predicting greater mood-reactive rumination. It was not, however, associated with depression course nor with the frequency of trait ruminative brooding. Mood-reactive rumination may be a vulnerability marker for depression, triggered in response to negative affect with a high degree of automaticity, making it difficult to control. It might constitute a risk independent of the depressive course and originate in early-life stress. Future studies may need to go beyond frequency and target the mood-reactivity and automaticity of ruminative thinking to reduce depression vulnerability

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Investigation of reward learning and feedback sensitivity in non-clinical participants with a history of early life stress

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0260444 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (12) ◽

pp. e0260444

Author(s):

Matthew Paul Wilkinson ◽

Chloe Louise Slaney ◽

Jack Robert Mellor ◽

Emma Susan Jane Robinson

Keyword(s):

Reversal Learning ◽

Life Stress ◽

Early Life ◽

Early Life Stress ◽

Learning Task ◽

Reward Learning ◽

Feedback Sensitivity ◽

History Of ◽

A Current ◽

Probabilistic Reversal Learning

Early life stress (ELS) is an important risk factor for the development of depression. Impairments in reward learning and feedback sensitivity are suggested to be an intermediate phenotype in depression aetiology therefore we hypothesised that healthy adults with a history of ELS would exhibit reward processing deficits independent of any current depressive symptoms. We recruited 64 adults with high levels of ELS and no diagnosis of a current mental health disorder and 65 controls. Participants completed the probabilistic reversal learning task and probabilistic reward task followed by depression, anhedonia, social status, and stress scales. Participants with high levels of ELS showed decreased positive feedback sensitivity in the probabilistic reversal learning task compared to controls. High ELS participants also trended towards possessing a decreased model-free learning rate. This was coupled with a decreased learning ability in the acquisition phase of block 1 following the practice session. Neither group showed a reward induced response bias in the probabilistic reward task however high ELS participants exhibited decreased stimuli discrimination. Overall, these data suggest that healthy participants without a current mental health diagnosis but with high levels of ELS show deficits in positive feedback sensitivity and reward learning in the probabilistic reversal learning task that are distinct from depressed patients. These deficits may be relevant to increased depression vulnerability.

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