Biol Psychol. 2025 Oct 28:109145. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109145. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Individuals prone to rumination and depressive symptoms often experience maladaptive, repetitive regret when confronted with lost opportunities. Understanding underlying neurobehavioral mechanisms is crucial for clarifying how these vulnerabilities might foster affective disorders. This study used a sequential risk-taking task to investigate how these vulnerabilities modulate behavioral, neural (Late Positive Potential, LPP), and cardiac responses to outcomes. Ninety-two female subjects received trial-by-trial feedback, yielding optimal, suboptimal (mixed gain/loss), and nonoptimal (total loss) outcomes. Higher rumination and depressive symptoms predicted greater behavioral sensitivity to lost opportunities. For suboptimal outcomes, the positive association between sensitivity and LPP amplitude was stronger in individuals with higher vulnerability, whereas for nonoptimal outcomes, the positive association between sensitivity and LPP amplitude was only present in those with extremely high rumination. Together, these findings suggest that for vulnerable individuals, a heightened sensitivity to lost opportunities manifests as a neural signature of sustained, maladaptive elaboration on partially or fully negative choice outcomes. In contrast, for individuals with low vulnerabilities, greater sensitivity predicted a reduced LPP for nonoptimal outcomes, a possible signature of adaptive disengagement from failure. Physiologically, regardless of vulnerability, greater sensitivity predicted increased cardiac acceleration following suboptimal outcomes, suggesting heightened autonomic arousal, though this effect only survived multiple-comparison correction in the model with rumination. In conclusion, sensitivity to lost opportunities seems not inherently maladaptive; its link to neural processing is shaped by clinical vulnerabilities. This altered processing may explain how these vulnerabilities sustain biased thinking, offering a transdiagnostic marker and targets for intervention against maladaptive regret. In contrast, individuals with low vulnerability showed a reduced LPP for nonoptimal outcomes, a signature of adaptive disengagement from failure. (both rumination and depressive symptoms). For nonoptimal outcomes, sensitivity predicted an amplified LPP in those with extremely high rumination. For suboptimal outcomes, the positive association between sensitivity and LPP amplitude was stronger in individuals with higher vulnerability, suggesting intensified counterfactual elaboration. For nonoptimal outcomes, this sensitivity predicted a reduced LPP (suggesting adaptive disengagement) in individuals with low vulnerability but an amplified LPP (suggesting maladaptive perseveration) in those with extremely high rumination. Individuals prone to self-critical rumination and depressive symptoms often experience maladaptive, repetitive regret when confronted with lost opportunities. Understanding the underlying neurobehavioral mechanisms in those with such clinical vulnerabilities is crucial for clarifying how these emotional disturbances might foster affective disorder development. This study used the Devil’s Task, a sequential risk-taking paradigm, to investigate how these traits modulate behavioral, neural (Late Positive Potential, LPP), and cardiac responses to lost opportunities. Ninety-two female subjects received trial-by-trial feedback on gains and lost opportunities (unearned rewards), yielding optimal (max reward, no loss), suboptimal (mixed gain/loss), and nonoptimal (no gain, only lost opportunities) outcomes. Higher rumination and depressive symptoms predicted greater sensitivity to lost opportunities (reflecting unearned rewards’ impact on regret). Crucially, the neural expression of lost opportunity sensitivity was moderated by vulnerability factors and the outcome context. For suboptimal outcomes, the positive association between lost opportunity sensitivity and LPP amplitude was stronger in individuals with higher levels of vulnerability, suggesting intensified counterfactual elaboration. For nonoptimal outcomes, greater sensitivity predicted a reduced LPP (suggesting adaptive disengagement) in individuals with low vulnerability but an amplified LPP (suggesting maladaptive perseveration) in those with extremely high rumination. Finally, for optimal outcomes, greater sensitivity was linked to an amplified LPP only in individuals with low depressive symptoms, possibly reflecting a heightened affective evaluation of success. In conclusion, lost opportunity sensitivity is not inherently maladaptive; its link to neural processing is shaped by clinical vulnerabilities like rumination and depressive symptoms. This altered processing may explain how these vulnerabilities sustain biased negative thinking, offering a transdiagnostic marker for maladaptive regret.
PMID:41167583 | DOI:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109145
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