The impact of maladaptive emotion regulation on reward processing: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence in depression vulnerability

Anhedonia and repetitive negative thinking (RNT) are core features of depression. Despite growing evidence suggesting their interaction in sustaining depression, the underlying mechanisms remain insufficiently understood. This study utilized a within- subjects design to examine the effects of experimentally induced RNT on reward processing during the Probabilistic Reward Task (PRT) in 62 individuals (n = 38 females) with varying depressive symptom severity. Reward responsiveness was assessed behaviorally through response bias and electrophysiologically via feedback- related positivity (FRP). Compared to an active control condition, the RNT induction led to a significantly impaired response bias (F = 17.65; p < .001, ηp2 = .23) and FRP amplitude (F = 6.49; p = .011, ηp2 = .11), with effects most pronounced in individuals with more severe depressive symptoms (- 0.17, [- 0.26, - 0.09], p > .001 and - 1.42 [- 2.51, - 0.34], p = .011, re spectively). Moreover, FRP amplitude was negatively correlated with both reward response bias (r = - 0.31) and subjective changes in RNT (r = - 0.30). These findings indicate that acute RNT exacerbates deficits in reward processing at both behavioral and neural levels, particularly in individuals highly vulnerable to depression. By elucidating the mechanisms linking maladaptive emotion regulation to anhedonia, this study highlights the critical role of RNT in worsening reward- related impairments and underscores the potential for targeted interventions aimed at mitigating its impact on depressive symptomatology. FUNDING: The present work was partially supported by Sapienza University of Rome grants RM11715C7F74C683 (CO) and AR223188B3133F0E (MS). DAP was partially supported by National Institute of Mental Health grants 5R37 MH068376.