The Reward Positivity (RewP) is a neurophysiological marker of reward sensitivity that
has been found to be impacted in depression. However, there have been some mixed findings
regarding the relationship between the RewP and depression, suggesting there are other factors
which impact this relationship. The current study investigated how the demographic factors of sex,
age, and socio-economic status might moderate the RewP-depression relationship, and examined
if these effects generalize across three different inventories for symptoms of depression. 194
people were recruited by random digit dialing (55.2% male, mean age = 51.34 years, mean monthly
income = $6625.95). They completed the SCID, HAM-D, and IDAS measures of depression, and
an EEG session in which they did a random guessing task to elicit the RewP. We found that there
was a trend-level interaction of a moderate effect size between symptoms of depression, age, and
sex in predicting RewP amplitude. Further exploration of this interaction revealed that for females,
there was an interactive effect between age and symptoms of depression, such that for younger
females, increased symptoms of depression were associated with a blunted RewP, and lower
symptoms of depression were associated with an enhanced RewP. These effects were specific to
the SCID, but did not generalize to the HAM-D or IDAS. Moreover, there was no interactive
effects between age and depression symptoms for males, nor did SES interact with depression and
other demographic factors in predicting the RewP. This study provides evidence that demographic
factors can impact the strength and nature of the relationships between the RewP and depression,
and that future researchers might wish to over-sample younger females when investigating other
moderating factors of the RewP in order to increase power.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/16955182 |
| Date | 22 November 2021 |
| Creators | Roslyn B Harold (11662231) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/The_Reward_Positivity_and_Depression_Investigating_Possible_Moderators/16955182 |
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