Neural sensitivity to peer feedback and depression symptoms in adolescents: a 2-year multiwave longitudinal study

Depression risk increases during adolescent development, and individual differences in neural sensitivity to peer feedback (rejection vs. acceptance) may be a key diathesis in understanding stress-related depression risk.

At baseline, adolescents (12-14 years old; N = 124) completed clinical interviews and self-report symptom measures, and the Chatroom Task while MRI data were acquired. The majority of participants provided usable MRI data (N = 90; 76% female), which included adolescents with no maternal depression history (low risk n = 64) and those with a maternal depression history (high risk n = 26). Whole-brain regression models probed group differences in neural sensitivity following peer feedback, and whole-brain linear mixed-effects models examined neural sensitivity to peer feedback by peer stress interactions relating to depression symptoms at up to nine longitudinal assessments over 2 years.

Whole-brain cluster-corrected results indicated brain activation moderating the strong positive association between peer interpersonal stress and depression over time. This included activation in the anterior insula, cingulate, amygdala, and striatum during anticipation and receipt of feedback (i.e., rejection vs. acceptance). Moderation effects were stronger when examining peer interpersonal (vs. non-interpersonal) stress and in relation to depression (vs. social anxiety) symptoms.

Neural responses to peer feedback in key social and incentive processing brain regions may reflect core dispositional risk factors that interact with peer interpersonal stressors to predict adolescent depression symptom severity over time.