BackgroundEarly life stress (ELS) is an important risk factor for the development of depression. Impairments in reward learning and feedback sensitivity have been suggested. to be an intermediate phenotype in depression aetiology. We therefore hypothesised that healthy adults with a history of ELS would have impairments in reward learning and feedback sensitivity.MethodsWe recruited 64 adult participants with high levels of ELS and no diagnosis of a current mental health disorder in addition to 65 controls. Participants completed two online reward learning tasks: the probabilistic reversal learning task (PRLT) and probabilistic reward task (PRT). Participants also completed depression, anhedonia, social status and stress scales with PRLT data being additionally analysed utilising a reinforcement learning model.ResultsParticipants with high levels of ELS showed decreased positive feedback sensitivity (PFS) in the PRLT compared to controls. High ELS participants also tended towards possessing a decreased model-free learning rate which strengthened in subsequent analysis. This was coupled with a decreased learning ability in the acquisition phase of block 1 following the practice session. Neither groups of participants showed a reward induced response bias in the PLT however high ELS participants exhibited decreased discrimination ability between stimuli; this was however accounted for by depression symptomology in further analysis.ConclusionsThese data suggest that healthy participants without a mental health diagnosis and high levels of ELS show deficits in PFS and reward learning in the PRLT that are distinct from depressed patients. These deficits may be relevant to an increased vulnerability to depression.
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