A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of reward-related brain activation: Effects of age, pubertal stage, and reward sensitivity

Abstract

Neurobiological models suggest that adolescents are driven by an overactive ventral striatum (VS) response to rewards that may lead to an adolescent increase in risk-taking behavior. However, empirical studies showed mixed findings of adolescents' brain response to rewards. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the relationship between reward-related brain activation and risky decision-making. In addition, we examined effects of age, puberty, and individuals' reward sensitivity. We collected two datasets: Experiment 1 reports cross-sectional brain data from 75 participants (ages 10-25) who played a risky decision task. Experiment 2 presents a longitudinal extension in which a subset of these adolescents (n = 33) was measured again 2 years later. Results showed that (1) a reward-related network including VS and medial PFC was consistently activated over time, (2) the propensity to choose the risky option was related to increased reward-related activation in VS and medial PFC, and (3) longitudinal comparisons indicated that self-reported reward sensitivity was specifically related to VS activation over time. Together, these results advance our insights in the brain circuitry underlying reward processing across adolescence.

What motivates adolescents? Neural responses to rewards and their influence on adolescents’ risk taking, learning, and cognitive control

“…These authors argue that defining adolescence as stages of development and recognizing individual differences in timing of transitions between these stages, is a much more fruitful way of understanding adolescence. There is some progress in the neuroscience literature in terms of defining biological maturity, with a focus on pubertal development in several recent studies (Braams et al, 2015;Op de Macks et al, 2011;Peper and Dahl, 2013;van Duijvenvoorde et al, 2014), which we also highlighted in the current review, but there is no emphasis yet on defining social maturity. Thus, this is a level of analysis where neuroscience can benefit from developmental approaches.…”

“…responses to rewards(Braams et al, 2015; see alsovan Duijvenvoorde et al, 2014;Op de Macks et al, 2011). Another two-year longitudinal study observed an increase and peak in reward sensitivity in late adolescence (as indicated by BAS reward-responsiveness).…”

Asymmetric neural tracking of gain and loss magnitude during adolescence

“…Reward reactivity is typically measured by comparing gain to loss outcomes or to baseline and in tasks that do not include magnitude manipulations (Ernst et al ., 2005; van Leijenhorst et al ., 2010; Op de Macks et al ., 2011; van Duijvenvoorde et al ., 2014) or collapse analyses across levels of value magnitude (van Leijenhorst et al ., 2006; Braams et al ., 2015). As a result, the developmental trajectory of outcome magnitude tracking remains largely unexplored.…”

Not Doomed to Repeat: Enhanced Medial Prefrontal Cortex Tracking of Errors Promotes Adaptive Behavior during Adolescence

“…Specifically, when looking at go trials that follow increasing FA errors, adolescents show increased neural tracking in the mPFC, a region previously implicated in the integration of explicit feedback (van Duijvenvoorde et al, 2014; McCormick & Telzer, 2017b). This novel finding suggests that some of the same neural systems that support integration of explicit feedback (van Noordt & Segalowitz, 2012; van Duijvenvoorde et al, 2008; McCormick & Telzer, 2017b) are similarly involved in learning from self-generated, implicit feedback information.…”

“…First, previous findings on feedback learning have involved explicit feedback (van Duijvenvoorde et al, 2014; McCormick & Telzer, 2017b), while the current study relied on internally-generated feedback in response to error commission. Additionally, these previous findings have been in the context of risk-taking behavior and rewards, while the current study relies on a difficult behavioral inhibition task.…”