Contextual influence of reinforcement learning performance of depression: evidence for a negativity bias?

Backgrounds: Value-based decision-making impairment in depression is a complex phenomenon: while some studies did find evidence of blunted reward learning and reward-related signals in the brain, others indicate no effect. Here we test whether such reward sensitivity deficits are dependent on the overall value of the decision problem.

Methods: We used a two-armed bandit task with two different contexts: one 'rich', one 'poor' where both options were associated with an overall positive, negative expected value, respectively.