Neural and Behavioral Markers of Inhibitory Control Over Reward Predict Symptoms of Psychopathology in Adolescents

• In Event: 3-030 - Reward and Cognition Interactions in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Integrative Statement

Rates of externalizing and internalizing disorders peak during adolescence and are associated with altered reward processing (Moffitt, 1993; Sterba et al., 2007). The dual-systems model posits that altered reward processing during adolescence occurs from an interaction between inhibitory control and motivational systems (Somerville et al., 2010). While this interaction has been studied in the context of normative adolescent development (Somerville et al., 2011), it has not yet been studied in relation to risk for psychopathology. Investigating this potential link is crucial, as normative changes in these systems may partially account for the uptick in disorder prevalence.
Here we examined the link between neural systems supporting control over reward and symptoms of psychopathology in 54 adolescents (ages 12-18, Mage= 14.8; 45% female). Participants completed the Youth Self-Report Questionnaire (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2011) to provide internalizing and externalizing symptom scores. The Conditioned Appetitive Response Inhibition Task (CARIT; Winter & Sheridan, 2014; Davidow et al., in press) assessed inhibitory control over reward. The initial phase of the CARIT involves a modified version of the Monetary Incentive Delay task (Knutson et al., 2000) in which participants acquire a learned stimulus association for a rewarded stimulus and a neutral stimulus. These stimuli are then used as no-go cues in a go-no-go paradigm. In addition to a high-resolution T1 scan and a resting-state scan, we acquired functional neuroimaging during the CARIT at the MGH/HST Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging on a 3T CONNECTOME scanner. Following standard preprocessing in FSL (v6.0), correct previously rewarded trials were directly contrasted with previously neutral trials, covarying for externalizing and internalizing symptom scores. All analyses controlled for age and gender.
Given known associations between externalizing disorders and both reward-seeking and prefrontal dysfunction (Castellanos-Ryan et al., 2014), we predicted that externalizing symptoms would be associated with impaired reward inhibition and disruption of associated neural circuits. In contrast, associations with internalizing symptoms were exploratory, as internalizing disorders have been associated with decreased reward-related modulation of cognitive control and general cognitive control deficits (Hardin et al., 2007; Burghy et al., 2012).
Contrary to our initial hypotheses, the ability to inhibit responses to previously rewarded cues was negatively associated with internalizing symptoms (B= -23.7, p=0.004; Fig. 1) but not associated with externalizing symptoms (B= -11.69, p=0.13). However, during successful inhibition over reward, greater externalizing symptoms were associated with greater activation in the left middle frontal gyrus, bilateral precuneus, and left superior parietal cortex, whereas greater internalizing symptoms were associated with greater activation in the bilateral precuneus and bilateral postcentral gyrus (Fig. 2).
While externalizing symptoms were not related to the ability to inhibit responses to reward, they were related to increased recruitment of regions implicated in cognitive control, suggesting that these regions may have been engaged to maintain performance levels. In contrast, internalizing symptoms were associated with impaired control over reward. In sum, as expected, we observed that behavioral and neural correlates of inhibitory control over reward, an operationalization of the dual-systems model, was linked to risk for internalizing and externalizing psychopathology during adolescence.

Authors

• Anais M. Rodriguez-Thompson, UNC Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Kristin Nicole Meyer, UNC Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Juliet Davidow, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leah H. Somerville, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Margaret Sheridan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author