Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA.
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2024 Apr;52(4):567-578. doi: 10.1007/s10802-023-01147-9. Epub 2023 Nov 27.
Very little is known about the mechanisms underlying the development of personality disorders, hindering efforts to address early risk for these costly and stigmatized disorders. In this study, we examined associations between social and monetary reward processing, measured at the neurophysiological level, and personality pathology, operationalized through the Level of Personality Functioning (LPF), in a sample of early adolescent females (M = 12.21 years old, SD = 1.21). Female youth with (n = 80) and without (n = 30) a mental health history completed laboratory tasks assessing social and monetary reward responsiveness using electroencephalogram (EEG) and completed ratings of personality pathology. Commonly co-occurring psychopathology, including depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) were also assessed. At the bivariate level, significant associations did not emerge between psychopathology and reward processing variables. When covarying symptoms of depression, anxiety, ADHD, ODD, and CD, an enhanced reward positivity (RewP) component to social reward feedback (accounting for response to social rejection) was associated with higher levels of personality impairment. Results were specific to social rather than monetary reward processing. Depression, anxiety, and ODD also explained unique variance in LPF. These findings suggest that alterations in social reward processing may be a key marker for early emerging personality pathology. Future work examining the role of social reward processing on the development of LPF across adolescence may guide efforts to prevent the profound social dysfunction associated with personality pathology.
人们对人格障碍发展的机制知之甚少，这阻碍了人们努力寻找这些代价高昂且带有耻辱感的障碍的早期风险因素。在这项研究中，我们在一个早期青春期女性样本（M=12.21 岁，SD=1.21）中，从神经生理学水平检查了社会和货币奖励处理与人格病理学之间的关联，人格病理学通过人格功能水平（LPF）来操作。该女性群体包括有（n=80）和没有（n=30）心理健康史的个体，她们完成了使用脑电图（EEG）评估社会和货币奖励反应的实验室任务，并完成了人格病理学的评定。通常共同发生的精神病理学，包括抑郁、焦虑、注意力缺陷/多动障碍（ADHD）、对立违抗性障碍（ODD）和品行障碍（CD）也进行了评估。在双变量水平上，精神病理学和奖励处理变量之间没有出现显著关联。当共变抑郁、焦虑、ADHD、ODD 和 CD 的症状时，对社会奖励反馈（解释对社会拒绝的反应）的增强奖励正波（RewP）成分与更高水平的人格障碍相关。结果专门针对社会奖励处理，而不是货币奖励处理。抑郁、焦虑和 ODD 也解释了 LPF 的独特方差。这些发现表明，社会奖励处理的改变可能是早期出现人格病理学的关键标志。未来研究检查社会奖励处理对青春期 LPF 发展的作用，可能有助于预防与人格病理学相关的严重社交功能障碍。
