Social network positions, trust behavior and its neural mechanisms in young adolescents

Abstract

Assessing the trustworthiness of others to learn who you can and cannot trust is important for social relationships. During early adolescence, the social environment becomes increasingly complex. The number and nature of one’s friendships may help to shape, and may be facilitated by, adequate trust behavior. In the current fMRI study, we investigated in 49 young adolescents (Mage=12.8, SDage=0.4, 18 boys) the ability to adapt trust behavior when interacting with an untrustworthy partner as well as the neural mechanisms of trust using a trust game. Furthermore, we examined how trust behavior, the neural mechanisms of trust, and the position in a social network are related. Results indicate that adolescents decreased their trust behavior throughout the game. fMRI analysis showed no increased activity in regions of interest when making trust decisions. When receiving feedback, increased activity in the cognitive control and reward network was shown. Furthermore, less central social network positions (eigencentrality) were associated with lower overall trust behavior, which was the better strategy in the current interaction. In contrast, eigencentrality was not related to the adaptation of trust behavior or to brain activity. The current study provides insights in trust behavior and the neural mechanisms of trust in young adolescents.