The Impact of Neurobiological Measures of Threat Sensitivity on Youth Self-Reported Hedonic Capacity

Abstract: The NIMH RDoC initiative is aimed at reconceptualizing psychopathology by focusing on transdiagnostic constructs that reflect core mechanisms of disorder. Reward responsiveness is a key construct that, when impaired, is associated with a variety of mental health disorders. However, much is unknown as to how other RDoC constructs, such as threat functioning, impact reward processing. The current study aimed to examine the relatedness of threat sensitivity and reward processing in a cohort of youth, ages 16–19 ( N = 152). Participants completed a battery of self-report forms, including the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS), which captures two stages of reward processing, anticipation and consumption. Objective threat response was captured using the no-predictable-unpredictable (NPU) threat paradigm and the error-related negativity (ERN). The NPU task includes anticipation of a predictable (P-) and an unpredictable (U-) electric shock. Startle eyeblink potentiation was measured as an index of aversive responding. The ERN measures neural response to errors during an electroencephalogram (EEG). Separate, exploratory hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted for reward anticipation and consumption, controlling for sex. In the consumption model, greater startle reactivity to U-threat and a more blunted ERN amplitude were uniquely related to lower levels of consummatory pleasure. In both models, there was an interaction between startle reactivity and ERN amplitude, such that at high, not low, levels of startle reactivity to U-threat, a more blunted ERN was associated with reduced anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Taken together, startle reactivity to U-threat and ERN have a unique and interactive effect on youth hedonic capacity.