Preadolescent Reward Processing Differentiates Irritability Trajectories Across Early Adolescence

Abstract

Aberrations in reward processing are associated with youth irritability, a top psychiatric concern. Some youth show chronically high or increasing levels of irritability across development, which are associated with psychiatric problems in adulthood. The current study examines whether preadolescent reward processing differentiates high-risk irritability trajectories across the transition to early adolescence. This study used participants from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study (n = 5794, 49.67% female) and caregiver-reported youth irritability scores using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) from ages 9-10 to 13-14. Preadolescent reward-related brain function was used to predict four irritability trajectories: high chronic (n=307, 5.29%), high decreasing (n=498, 8.60%), low increasing (n=689, 11.89%), and low stable (n=4300, 74.20%). Reward-related brain function was measured using the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task during reward anticipation and reward feedback. Findings demonstrated that youth in the high chronic and high decreasing trajectory groups had less activation and weakened right ventral striatum and right amygdala connectivity during reward and loss anticipation compared to the low stable and low increasing groups. During the feedback period, youth in the high chronic trajectory group had greater right amygdala connectivity during hit versus miss trials and increased right ventral striatum connectivity in the missed trial during the loss condition. Preadolescent reward processing differentiated youth who showed high irritability levels across the transition to early adolescence. These neural patterns may identify high-risk youth and serve as potential targets to intervene and alter the course of irritability.