Individual Differences in Response to Prediction Bias Training

Abstract

Depressed and dysphoric individuals predict negative outcomes more often than healthy individuals, and more frequently than positive outcomes. However, it is unclear if there is a causal relationship between negative emotional processing biases and depressive symptoms. We examined whether prediction-targeted neurocognitive training changed symptoms, behavior, and physiological reactivity to positive or negative feedback in euthymic and dysphoric undergraduates. Participants were randomized to a positive training intervention or neutral training. Among participants who received the positive training, pupillary reactivity to negative feedback predicted decreased symptoms and decreased after each session. Neither effect was present in the neutral training group. Both groups were more likely than controls to predict positive outcomes after training. Data suggested that change in a physiological mechanism indexing emotional reactivity and change in depressive symptoms during a targeted intervention may be related, and that it is possible, using psychophysiology, to predict which individuals will respond to neurocognitive intervention.