Distress Intolerance Is Associated With a Greater Reward Positivity to Aversive Avoidance Feedback

Research indicates that the reward positivity (RewP) can be elicited by both appetitive gain (e.g., winning money) and aversive outcome avoidance (e.g., safety from a noise blast). Yet, little work has linked these differential reward responses with avoidance-related psychopathology risk factors. The present study addressed this gap by examining the associations of distress intolerance (DI), a risk factor for maladaptive avoidance-based strategies, with reward responses during two versions of a simple guessing task: the monetary doors task and aversive avoidance doors task. Young adults (n = 102) were recruited from a large university campus to complete two versions of a doors task in which they were instructed to choose one of two doors and view feedback that indicated monetary gain/loss in one task (i.e., monetary doors task) or avoidance/administration of an aversive noise blast in the other task (i.e., aversive avoidance doors task). The RewP was extracted at FCz from 250 to 350 ms in each condition. ΔAvoidance RewP was calculated as the residualized difference score of Avoidance Win (i.e., no aversive sound) relative to Avoidance Loss (i.e., pending noise blast administration). ΔMonetary RewP was calculated as the residualized difference score of Monetary Win relative to Loss. Feedback-locked P300 waveforms in each condition were also extracted. Results indicated that greater self-reported DI was linked with a larger ΔAvoidance RewP (β = 0.32, p = 0.026) and Avoidance Feedback P300 (β = 0.36, p = 0.012) but not the ΔMonetary RewP (p = 0.467) or Monetary Feedback P300 (p = 0.573). Findings were not better explained by self-reported symptoms of depression, trait anxiety, trauma history, or task-related state anxiety. The present study demonstrates that elevated DI is associated with exaggerated reward activation to avoidance-related feedback (ΔAvoidance RewP). Taken together, this work advances our understanding of DI and suggests the utility of the ΔAvoidance RewP for understanding disruptions of negative reinforcement.