부산대학교 도서관

Stress and neural responses to reward can interact to predict psychopathology, but the mechanisms of this interaction are unclear. One possibility is that the strength of neural responses to reward can affect the ability to maintain positive affect during stress. In this study, 105 participants completed a monetary reward task to elicit the reward positivity (RewP), an event‐related potential sensitive to rewards. Subsequently, during a stressful period, participants reported on their affect nine times a day and on daily positive and negative events for 10 days. Even during heightened stress, experiencing more positive events was associated with increased positive affect. The RewP significantly moderated this association: Individuals with a larger RewP reported greater increases in positive affect when they experienced more positive events, relative to individuals with a smaller RewP. A blunted RewP might contribute to stress susceptibility by affecting how much individuals engage in positive emotion regulation during stress. This study explores the association between reward sensitivity and risk for psychopathology. We examine how neural responses to rewards moderate the associations between positive and negative experiences and affect during a time of stress. By demonstrating that greater neural response to reward is related to greater positive affect following positive events, this study expands on factors that may buffer against the detrimental effects of stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]