Blunted neural response to appetitive images prospectively predicts symptoms of depression, and not anxiety, during the transition to university.

Individual differences in neural response to appetitive and aversive stimuli may confer vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology, including depression and anxiety. However, the specificity of this association with symptoms of depression and anxiety within the context of real-world stress is not well understood. The present study examined whether neural responses to appetitive and aversive images, measured by the late positive potential (LPP), prospectively predict symptoms of depression and/or anxiety during the transition to university-a common, major life stressor-in 70 female emerging adults. A blunted LPP to appetitive stimuli at the start of the university year was uniquely associated with greater symptoms of depression six weeks later, after controlling for time one depressive symptoms and neural responses to aversive and neutral stimuli. These findings suggest that a blunted LPP to appetitive images may be biomarker of risk for developing symptoms of depression, and not anxiety, following life stress.

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