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Interpersonal stress in adolescence has been associated with alterations in neural responses to peer feedback, and increased vulnerability to psychopathology. However, it is unclear whether the associations of interpersonal problems with neural responses are global across event‐related potentials (ERPs) or might result in alterations only in specific ERPs. We examined associations between multiple informants of peer stress (self‐reported, parent‐reported, and peer‐reported) and multiple ERPs (N1, P2, RewP, and LPP) to social feedback in a sample of 46 early adolescents (aged 12–13 years). Reports of peer stress were only moderately correlated with one another, indicating different informants capture different aspects of peer stress. Regressions using informant reports to predict ERPs revealed greater parent‐reported peer stress was associated with a smaller RewP, whereas self‐reported stress was associated with a smaller P2, to acceptance. In contrast, greater peer‐reported stress was associated with larger P2, RewP, and LPP to acceptance. Findings suggest that different sources of stress measurement are differentially associated with ERPs. Future research using social feedback‐related ERPs should consider multiple sources of information as well as multiple ERP components across the time‐course of feedback processing, to gain a clearer understanding of the effects of peer stress on neural responses to feedback.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive technique that can be used to examine neural responses with and without the use of a functional task. Indeed, fMRI has been used in clinical trials and pharmacological research studies. In mental health, it has been used to identify brain areas linked to specific symptoms but also has the potential to help identify possible treatment targets. Despite fMRI's many advantages, such findings are rarely the primary outcome measure in clinical trials or research studies. This article reviews fMRI studies in depression that sought to assess the efficacy and mechanism of action of compounds with antidepressant effects. Our search results focused on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the most commonly prescribed treatments for depression and ketamine, a fast-acting antidepressant treatment. Normalization of amygdala hyperactivity in response to negative emotional stimuli was found to underlie successful treatment response to SSRIs as well as ketamine, indicating a potential common pathway for both conventional and fast-acting antidepressants. Ketamine's rapid antidepressant effects make it a particularly useful compound for studying depression with fMRI; its effects on brain activity and connectivity trended toward normalizing the increases and decreases in brain activity and connectivity associated with depression. These findings highlight the considerable promise of fMRI as a tool for identifying treatment targets in depression. However, additional studies with improved methodology and study design are needed before fMRI findings can be translated into meaningful clinical trial outcomes.

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