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

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 12; p. e0260444
• Main Authors: Wilkinson, Matthew Paul, Slaney, Chloe Louise, Mellor, Jack Robert, Robinson, Emma Susan Jane
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 10-12-2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Adverse Childhood Experiences - psychology; Anhedonia; Bias; Biology and Life Sciences; Cognitive tasks; Depression, Mental; Depressive Disorder, Major - psychology; Diagnosis; Etiology; Feedback; Female; Flexibility; Funding; Genotype & phenotype; Health aspects; Hedonic response; Humans; Investigations; Learning; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; Neurosciences; Pharmacology; Phenotypes; Physical Sciences; Physiology; Positive feedback; Psychiatric research; Reinforcement; Research and Analysis Methods; Response bias; Reversal Learning; Reward; Reward (Psychology); Risk analysis; Risk factors; Sensitivity; Social interactions; Social Sciences; Social Status; Stress; Stress (Psychology); United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260444

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.