BackgroundAtypical reward processing is implicated in a range of psychiatric disorders associated with childhood maltreatment and may represent a latent vulnerability mechanism. In this longitudinal study, we investigated the impact of maltreatment on behavioural and neural indices of reward learning in volatile environments and examined associations with future psychopathology assessed 18 months later.MethodsThirty‐seven children and adolescents with documented histories of maltreatment (MT group) and a carefully matched group of 32 non‐maltreated individuals (NMT group) aged 10–16 were presented with a probabilistic reinforcement learning task featuring a phase of stable and a phase of volatile reward contingencies. Brain activation and connectivity were assessed simultaneously using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Computational models were used to extract individual estimates of learning rates and temperature, and neural signals in prespecified regions of interest were analysed during volatile and stable environments. In regression analyses, behavioural measures and neural signals at baseline were used to predict psychological symptoms at follow‐up.ResultsThe MT group showed lower behavioural exploration, which predicted decreased internalising symptoms at follow‐up. The MT group had lower activation in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) during outcome delivery in volatile relative to stable contexts. OFC connectivity with an area in the mid‐cingulate cortex was also lower during outcome processing, which predicted higher general psychopathology at follow‐up.ConclusionsThese findings are consistent with the notion that low exploratory behaviour following childhood maltreatment is potentially a protective adaptation against internalising symptoms, while disrupted neural processing of reward learning in volatile environments may index latent vulnerability to mental illness.

中文翻译：

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在动荡的环境中，儿童期虐待与奖励学习期间的探索能力下降和前额叶活动和连接性中断有关


背景非典型奖励处理与一系列与儿童虐待相关的精神疾病有关，可能代表潜在的脆弱机制。在这项纵向研究中，我们调查了虐待对动荡环境中奖励学习的行为和神经指标的影响，并检查了 18 个月后评估的与未来精神病理学的关联。方法向 37 名有虐待史记录的儿童和青少年（MT 组）和一组 32 名 10-16 岁的非虐待个体（NMT 组）进行了仔细匹配的组，该任务具有稳定阶段和波动性奖励或有阶段。使用功能磁共振成像 （fMRI） 同时评估大脑激活和连接性。计算模型用于提取学习率和温度的个体估计值，并在不稳定和稳定的环境中分析预先指定感兴趣区域中的神经信号。在回归分析中，基线时的行为测量和神经信号用于预测随访时的心理症状。结果MT 组表现出较低的行为探索，这预示着随访时内化症状的减少。相对于稳定环境，MT 组在不稳定的结果传递过程中眶额叶皮层 （OFC） 的激活较低。在结果处理过程中，OFC 与扣带回中皮层区域的连接也较低，这预示着随访时一般精神病理学较高。结论这些发现与童年虐待后的低探索行为可能是对内化症状的保护性适应的观点一致，而在动荡的环境中奖励学习的神经处理中断可能表明对精神疾病的潜在脆弱性。