Individuals who have suffered from adverse childhood experiences are more likely to accept less and lower-weight reward feedback.

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), are extreme stressors that can lead to adverse psychosocial outcomes in adulthood. Nonhuman animals exhibit a reduced ability to explore after being exposed to stress early in their lives. We hypothesized, therefore, that ACEs would cause a reduction in exploration in humans. In a foraging task, we predicted that adults with ACEs would adopt a decision making policy that relies upon the most recent reward feedback. This is a rational strategy in unstable environments. We analyzed data of 145 adult participants. 47 had more than four ACEs, while 98 had fewer. Participants evaluated the tradeoff between exploiting a familiar patch with diminishing reward and exploring a new patch with a fresh distribution. We used computational modeling to quantify the impact of recent feedback on participants’ decisions. Participants with ACEs explored less, as predicted. Contrary to our hypothesis, participants with ACEs explored less. These unexpected results indicate that reward sensitivity may be affected by early adversity. Our findings could help to identify cognitive mechanisms linking childhood trauma to psychopathology.