Blunted Neural Response to Reward as an Index of Stress Susceptibility and Depression in Women

Major depressive disorder is one of the most common and costly diseases worldwide. Stress is a well-established risk factor for depression, but not all individuals who experience stress will develop depression. Understanding this relationship is now more critical than ever given that the world is experiencing a potent stressor-the COVID-19 pandemic-that is associated with rising levels of depressive symptoms, especially for women. One central need is to identify which individuals are at greatest risk for depression in the face of stress and to understand why. A blunted neural response to reward can be observed not only in people experiencing depression, but also in those at risk for the disorder suggesting that it may be a vulnerability marker for the illness. I believe stress may be key to explaining how these neural responses result in depression. In recent years, my lab has published many studies demonstrating that blunted neural responses to reward render individuals more vulnerable to the effects of stress. Specifically, the reward positivity (RewP), a fronto-central event-related potential (ERP) component that is sensitive to rewards and has been consistently linked to increased depressive symptoms and risk for depression. My proposed research will examine how baseline neural responses to reward predict who will be most likely to experience increases in depressive symptoms following pandemic-related stress. To test this question, I will leverage data from a sample of 109 pairs of women and their adolescent daughters who are vulnerable to depression. This study will be the first to examine reward-related ERPs as a moderator of the relationship between life stress and depression in women in the context of an acute stressor- the global COVID-19 pandemic.