Early and late signals of unexpected reward contribute to low extraversion and high disinhibition, respectively

Abstract

Like socio-economic status and cognitive abilities, personality traits predict important life outcomes. Traits that reflect unusually low or high approach motivations, such as low extraversion and high disinhibition, are linked to various forms of mental disorder. Similarly, the dopamine system is theoretically linked to approach motivation traits and to various forms of mental disorder. Identifying neural contributions to extremes of such traits should map to neural sources of psychopathology, with dopamine a prime candidate. Notably, dopamine cells fire in response to unexpected reward, which suggests that the size of non-invasive, scalp-recorded potentials evoked by unexpected reward could reflect sensitivity in approach motivation traits. Here, we evaluated the validity of evoked electroencephalography (EEG) responses to unexpected reward in a monetary gain/loss task to assess approach motivation traits in 137 participants, oversampled for externalizing psychopathology symptoms. We demonstrated that over the 0–400 ms period in which feedback on the outcome was presented, responses evoked by unexpected reward contributed to all theoretically relevant approach motivation trait domains (disinhibition, extraversion and the behavioural activation system); and did so only at times when dopamine responses normally peak and reportedly code salience (70–100 ms) and valuation (200–300 ms). In particular, we linked “dopaminergic” salience and valuation to the psychopathology-related constructs of low extraversion (social anxiety) and high disinhibition (impulsivity) respectively, making the evoked potential components biomarker candidates for indexing aberrant processing of unexpected reward.

Assessing psychopathic traits with the MMPI-3: Findings from correctional, university, and community samples.

“…The samples used for the present study have been used in other studies to address other research questions (Kremyar & Wygant, 2023;Lagera & Sellbom, 2023;Neo et al, 2021;Sellbom, 2021;Sellbom et al, 2021Sellbom et al, , 2022Whitman & Sellbom, 2023). The research questions and results presented in this study are novel and have not been presented in these previous peer-reviewed publications.…”

Midfrontal theta reactivity to conflict and error are linked to externalizing and internalizing respectively

“…While they completed the questionnaires, the experimenter prepared the participants for EEG recording by applying electro-gel and reducing the impedance of the recording sensors attached to the EEG cap. The participants were then tested (∼25 min) on the stop-signal task (Shadli et al, 2015 ), followed by the gold bar/lemon task (Neo et al, 2021 ) (∼30 min; data not reported here). The participants were then administered the structured clinical interviews.…”

Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Expanded Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale in Community and University Samples

“…They subsequently completed the study measures via the Qualtrics platform. Next, they completed a full electroencephalogram (EEG) protocol for approximately 1 hour (which was not used for this study; see Neo et al, 2021). After completing the EEG measures, the SCID-5 and SCID-5-PD modules were administered to each participant.…”