Identifying Novel Biological Profiles of Early Risk and Intervention for Mood Disorders in Adolescents: Mapping Stress-Responsive Changes in Electrocortical Indices in Adolescent Anhedonia
2024 Award: $74,802
Research shows that interpersonal stress increases risk for anhedonia, yet, not all adolescents who are exposed to interpersonal stress go on to experience anhedonia. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand which youth are most likely to experience anhedonia in the context of interpersonal stress. This study will integrate neural and physiological assessments to create novel biological profiles of stress responsivity and will examine whether these profiles can be used to predict adolescent anhedonia. Findings will serve as pilot data for future grants leveraging these biological profiles to improve early risk detection and treatment of adolescent anhedonia.
Need/Problem: Anhedonia, the inability to experience or anticipate pleasure, is a core depression symptom that often emerges in adolescence and precedes and predicts depression onset and severity. Interpersonal stress plays a key role in the development of anhedonia, yet, not all exposed youth are anhedonic. Thus, there is a critical need to identify mechanisms that increase risk for anhedonia when youth are exposed to interpersonal stress.
Grant Summary: We will identify novel biological profiles that reflect distinct patterns of neural and physiological responses to stress and will examine which biological profiles reflect increased risk for adolescent anhedonia in the context of interpersonal stress.
Goals and Projected Outcomes: Findings will provide preliminary data regarding whether novel biological profiles of stress response can identify adolescents at highest risk for anhedonia. Findings will also serve as pilot data for future grant applications focused on leveraging these biological profiles to improve early identification of anhedonia risk and inform effective treatment development.
Cope Feurer, PhD
Ayse Belger, PhD
Danielle Roubinov, PhD
Grant Details: This study will include 80 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 15. Adolescents will complete self-report questionnaires and clinician-administered interviews assessing youth interpersonal stress exposure and anhedonia. Adolescents will also attend a laboratory visit during which neural (i.e., electroencephalography [EEG]) and physiological data will be collected before, during, and after a social stressor task. Neural and physiological data will be integrated to identify novel biological profiles of stress responsivity. These biological profiles will characterize subgroups of participants who show specific patterns of neural and physiological reactivity to stress. We hypothesize that these biological profiles can be used to predict which youth are most likely to experience anhedonia after experiencing interpersonal stress. We also hypothesize that youth with maladaptive biological profiles will also exhibit stress-induced changes in neural (EEG) activity that persist even after the laboratory stress is completed, and that these sustained changes in EEG will predict adolescent anhedonia risk.
