Sex differences in the neural underpinnings of social and monetary incentive processing during adolescence

Abstract

The brain's reward system undergoes major changes during adolescence, and an increased reactivity to social and nonsocial incentives has been described as a typical feature during this transitional period. Little is known whether there are sex differences in the brain's responsiveness to social or monetary incentives during adolescence. The aim of this event-related potential (ERP) study was to compare the neurophysiological underpinnings of monetary and social incentive processing in adolescent boys versus girls. During ERP recording, 38 adolescents (21 females, 17 males; 13-18 years) completed an incentive delay task comprising (a) a reward versus punishment condition and (b) social versus monetary incentives. The stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) was recorded during anticipation of reward and punishment, and the feedback P3 (fP3) along with the feedback-related negativity (FRN) after reward/punishment delivery. During anticipation of social punishment, adolescent boys compared with girls exhibited a reduced SPN. After delivery, male adolescents exhibited higher fP3 amplitudes to monetary compared with social incentives, whereas fP3 amplitudes in girls were comparable across incentive types. Moreover, whereas in boys fP3 responses were higher in rewards than in punishment trials, no such difference was evident in girls. The results indicate that adolescent boys show a reduced neural responsivity in the prospect of social punishment. Moreover, the findings imply that, once the incentive is obtained, adolescent boys attribute a relatively enhanced motivational significance to monetary incentives and show a relative hyposensitivity to punishment. The findings might contribute to our understanding of sex-specific vulnerabilities to problem behaviors related to incentive processing during adolescence.

Men Show Higher Neural Sensitivity to Wins – Large or Small – than Women in the Monetary Incentive Delay Task

“…Further, only girls demonstrated FRN to monetary punishment in relation to a reward sensitivity trait. In another EEG study of an incentive delay task, boys as compared to girls showed reduced stimulus-preceding negativity when anticipating punishment and greater feedback P3 to monetary than social reward (33). These findings are consistent with a literature of higher female sensitivity to loss, punishment or other negative feedback (27,34,35).…”

“…Thus, these findings suggest greater male sensitivity to monetary reward, in accord with the literature. For instance, an ERP study in adolescents reported higher feedback P3 amplitude in boys, as compared to girls, in response to monetary rewards (33). Another study reported a preferential response of the OFC to attractive vs. unattractive faces in men but not in women (66).…”

Love is analogous to money in human brain: Coordinate-based and functional connectivity meta-analyses of social and monetary reward anticipation

“…Likewise, electroencephalographic evidence has shown that social and monetary incentive cues evoke differential event-related potential patterns at both early and late temporal stages (Flores et al, 2015). Moreover, neural activation induced by social and monetary reward anticipation are differentially modulated by age (Rademacher et al, 2013), sex (Greimel et al, 2018;Spreckelmeyer et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2017), and social proficiency (Gossen et al, 2014). Taken together, recent evidence suggests a hypothesis that social reward anticipation engages a more complex neural circuit than monetary reward anticipation, consisting of not only reward-related regions (e.g., VS) but also social-cognitive related regions (e.g., dmPFC, TPJ).…”

Neural Responses to Reward in a Gambling Task: Sex Differences and Individual Variation in Reward-Driven Impulsivity

“…Further, the current findings should be considered as specific to monetary reward, and more studies are needed to address how men and women differ in behavioral and neural sensitivity to other types (e.g., social) of reward ( Spreckelmeyer et al. 2009 ; Greimel et al. 2018 ).…”