Differences in Consummatory but Not Anticipatory Reward Processing Predict Depressive Symptoms in Young Adult Women

Depression has been postulated to relate to alterations in both anticipatory (i.e., motivation) and consummatory (i.e., hedonic pleasure) stages of reward processing. However, few studies have concurrently examined the various processes of these stages. Furthermore, little attention has been paid to whether these associations are sex-specific, despite increasing evidence of the sex specificity of neural markers of internalizing disorders. The current study examines event-related potentials (ERPs) of reward processing recorded during a monetary incentive delay task among a community sample of n = 309 emerging adults in relation to self-reported symptoms of depression. Regression modeling indicated that greater depressive symptom scores were associated with reduced responsivity to reward feedback and increased responsivity to non-reward feedback (as indexed by the Feedback-P3) but only for participants who were identified as female at birth. Individual differences in anticipatory processes (as indexed by both the Cue-P3 and CNV) were not associated with depressive symptoms for either sex. Results of these models suggest that depressive symptoms appear to be associated with consummatory reward processing for young women. It is possible that other dimensions of negative affect could be more poignant for male participants or may provide an additional description of the relationship between reward processing and depressive symptoms.