Research paperNeural reactivity to reward in school-age offspring of depressed mothers

- Maternal depression puts children at high risk for affective disorders.
- High- and low-risk children performed a reward task during fMRI acquisition.
- High-risk children showed atypical prefrontal, limbic, and striatal modulation.
- High-risk children had blunted activation to receiving vs. not receiving a reward.

BackgroundIdentifying neural profiles predictive of future psychopathology in at-risk individuals is important to efficiently direct preventive care. Alterations in reward processing may be a risk factor for depression. The current study characterized neural substrates of reward processing in children at low- and high-risk for psychopathology due to maternal depression status.MethodsChildren with (n=27) and without (n=19) maternal depression (ages 5.9-9.6 years) performed a monetary incentive delay task in which they received rewards, if they successfully hit a target, or no reward regardless of performance, during fMRI acquisition.ResultsMultiple dorsal prefrontal, temporal, and striatal regions showed significant Group (high- vs. low-risk)×Performance (hit vs. miss)×Condition (no reward vs. reward) interactions in a whole-brain analysis. All regions exhibited similar patterns, whereby the high-risk group showed blunted activation differences between trials with vs. without rewards when participants hit the target. Moreover, high-risk children showed activation differences between trials with vs. without rewards in the opposite direction, compared to the low-risk group, when they missed the target.LimitationsThis study had a modest sample size, though larger than existing studies. Children with maternal depression are at elevated risk for future psychopathology, yet not all experience clinically significant symptoms; longitudinal research is necessary to fully track the pathway from risk to disorder.ConclusionChildren of depressed mothers exhibited attenuated neural activation differences and activation patterns opposite to children without depressed mothers. Our findings may provide targets for hypothesis-driven preventive interventions and lead to earlier identification of individuals at risk.