Neural response to social but not monetary reward predicts increases in depressive symptoms during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

The prevalence of depressive symptoms has increased during the COVID‐19 pandemic, especially among those with greater pandemic‐related stress exposure; however, not all individuals exposed to pandemic stress will develop depression. Determining which individuals are vulnerable to depressive symptoms as a result of this stress could lead to an improved understanding of the etiology of depression. This study sought to determine whether neural sensitivity to monetary and/or social reward prospectively predicts depressive symptoms during periods of high stress. 121 participants attended pre‐pandemic laboratory visits where they completed monetary and social reward tasks while electroencephalogram was recorded. Subsequently, from March to August 2020, we sent eight questionnaires probing depressive symptoms and exposure to pandemic‐related stressors. Using repeated‐measures multilevel models, we evaluated whether neural response to social or monetary reward predicted increases in depressive symptoms across the early course of the pandemic. Furthermore, we examined whether neural response to social or monetary reward moderated the association between pandemic‐related episodic stressors and depressive symptoms. Pandemic‐related stress exposure was strongly associated with depressive symptoms. Additionally, we found that blunted neural response to social but not monetary reward predicted increased depressive symptoms during the pandemic. However, neither neural response to social nor monetary reward moderated the association between episodic stress exposure and depressive symptoms. Our findings indicate that neural response to social reward may be a useful predictor of depressive symptomatology under times of chronic stress, particularly stress with a social dimension.

Pathways to depression: Dynamic associations between neural responses to appetitive cues in the environment, stress, and the development of illness

“…Using multilevel models, we evaluated whether neural response to social or monetary reward predicted increases in depressive symptoms during the pandemic, again adjusting for baseline symptoms. We found that blunted neural response to social, but not monetary, reward predicted increased symptoms of depression during the early months of the pandemic (Freeman, Panier, et al, 2022), over and above variance accounted for by earlier self‐reported symptoms of symptoms of depression.…”

“…Since the World Health Organization declared COVID‐19 an international pandemic on March 11th, 2020, much of the global population has undergone a sustained and uncontrollable stressor, though it must be acknowledged that stressors associated with the pandemic have been unevenly distributed across the population (e.g., Patel et al, 2020). The pandemic, now in its third year, has already had a profound impact on morbidity, mortality, social connection, and the global economy, and emerging evidence further demonstrates that stress related to the pandemic is predicting increases in depression symptoms, especially for women and girls (e.g., Freeman, Panier, et al, 2022; Hawes et al, 2021; Kujawa, Green, et al, 2020; Venanzi et al, 2022). My lab also wanted to see whether the pandemic has had an effect on neural responses to rewards.…”

“…Anhedonia—the inability to experience pleasure (Ribot, 1896) and/or loss of interest—is a common symptom of many forms of psychiatric illnesses, including depression (APA, 2013; Gard et al, 2007; Lambert et al, 2018). At the neural level, anhedonia has been linked to deficits in the brain's ability to process and respond to appetitive cues in the environment (Harkness et al, 2022; Keedwell et al, 2005; Pizzagalli, 2014), and there is some evidence that deficits reflected in these neural measures can precede, and prospectively predict the onset of, depression (Bress et al, 2013; Freeman, Ethridge, et al, 2022; Freeman, Panier, et al, 2022; Kujawa et al, 2012, 2019; Kujawa, Proudfit, & Klein, 2014; Sandre et al, 2019). A large focus of my research has been on (a) identifying specific neural correlates of depression and/or anhedonia that might be useful in developing more precise clinical phenotypes, (b) understanding how variation in neural systems that process appetitive cues emerges, and finally (c) understanding how extremes of this variation might contribute to the emergence of psychopathology.…”

Rethinking the risk for depression using the RDoC: A psychophysiological perspective

“…Similarly, subclinical depressive symptoms were linked to reduced time-frequency delta power to social rewards ( Jin et al, 2019 ). Additionally, other studies indicated a smaller RewP to social acceptance in individuals with depression ( Kujawa et al, 2017 ; Distefano et al, 2018 ) and those at risk for the disorder ( Freeman et al, 2022a , b ).…”

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Neural Responses to Reward: A Quasi-experiment

“…Although preclinical work has consistently demonstrated that exposure to chronic stressors leads to impairment in dopamine signaling and reward responsiveness ( 13 , 21 , 22 , 23 ), results in humans have been more mixed. Though some studies have found that real-world stress exposure is associated with blunted reward response ( 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ), others have found evidence of heightened reward sensitivity ( 18 ) or no association ( 27 , 28 , 29 ). This may depend on the type or severity of the stressor ( 18 ).…”