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Updated: Jul 12, 2025

An Electrophysiology Protocol to Measure Reward Anticipation and Processing in Children
Published on: October 4, 2018
Reward Functioning in General and Specific Psychopathology in Children and Adults
Ankita Saxena1, Catharina A Hartman2, Steven D Blatt1
1SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, USA.
Objective:
Problems with reward processing have been implicated in multiple psychiatric disorders, but psychiatric comorbidities are common and their specificity to individual psychopathologies is unknown. Here, we evaluate the association between reward functioning and general or specific psychopathologies.
Method:
1,213 adults and their1,531 children (ages 6-12) completed various measures of the Positive Valence System domain from the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). Psychopathology was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist for children and the Adult Self Report for parents.
Results:
One general factor identified via principal factors factor analysis explained most variance in psychopathology in both groups. Measures of reward were associated with the general factor and most specific psychopathologies. Certain reward constructs were associated solely with specific psychopathologies but not general psychopathology. However, some prior associations between reward and psychopathology did not hold following removal of comorbidity.
Conclusion:
Reward dysfunction is significantly associated with both general and specific psychopathologies.
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