Reward Processing and Risk for Depression Across Development

Striatal response to reward has been of great interest in the typical development and psychopathology literatures. These parallel lines of inquiry demonstrate that although typically developing adolescents show robust striatal response to reward, adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) and those at high risk for MDD show a blunted response to reward. Understanding how these findings intersect is crucial for the development and application of early preventative interventions in at-risk children, ideally before the sharp increase in the rate of MDD onset that occurs in adolescence. Robust findings relating blunted striatal response to reward and MDD risk are reviewed and situated within a normative developmental context. We highlight the need for future studies investigating longitudinal development, specificity to MDD, and roles of potential moderators and mediators.