ArticlePloS one2021
Investigation of reward learning and feedback sensitivity in non-clinical participants with a history of early life stress.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- How childhood adversity affects components of decision making.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- "The wrong tools for the right job": a critical meta-analysis of traditional tests to assess behavioural impacts of maternal separation.Psychopharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Longitudinal associations between perceived stress and anhedonia during psychotherapy.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Trial
- Probing biomarkers and clinical utility of reward learning across species using the Probabilistic Reward Task: 20 years of findings.Nature. Mental health · 2026Article
- Article
- Cross-species translational paradigms for assessing positive valence system as defined by the RDoC matrix.Journal of neurochemistry · 2025Review
- Early life racial/ethnic discrimination effects on behavioral control and health outcomes in young adults.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Neural and immune interactions linking early life stress and anhedonia.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- The mind, brain, and body study: A protocol for examining the effects of the gut-brain-immune axis on internalizing symptoms in youth exposed to caregiving-related early adversity.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- Beta activity in human anterior cingulate cortex mediates reward biases.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Analysis of hippocampal synaptic function in a rodent model of early life stress.Wellcome open research · 2024Article
- Effects of early-life stress on probabilistic reversal learning and response perseverance in young adults.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2023Article
- Impact of Early Life Stress on Reward Circuit Function and Regulation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Early life stress (ELS) is an important risk factor for the development of depression. Impairments in reward learning and feedback sensitivity are suggested to be an intermediate phenotype in depression aetiology therefore we hypothesised that healthy adults with a history of ELS would exhibit reward processing deficits independent of any current depressive symptoms. We recruited 64 adults with high levels of ELS and no diagnosis of a current mental health disorder and 65 controls. Participants completed the probabilistic reversal learning task and probabilistic reward task followed by depression, anhedonia, social status, and stress scales. Participants with high levels of ELS showed decreased positive feedback sensitivity in the probabilistic reversal learning task compared to controls. High ELS participants also trended towards possessing a decreased model-free learning rate. This was coupled with a decreased learning ability in the acquisition phase of block 1 following the practice session. Neither group showed a reward induced response bias in the probabilistic reward task however high ELS participants exhibited decreased stimuli discrimination. Overall, these data suggest that healthy participants without a current mental health diagnosis but with high levels of ELS show deficits in positive feedback sensitivity and reward learning in the probabilistic reversal learning task that are distinct from depressed patients. These deficits may be relevant to increased depression vulnerability.
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Registered trials
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