Within-subject neural reactivity to reward and threat is inverted in young adolescents

Abstract

Background As children mature, they become increasingly independent and less reliant on caregiver support. Changes in brain systems are likely to stimulate and guide this process. One mechanistic hypothesis suggests that changes in neural systems that process reward and threat support the increase in exploratory behavior observed in the transition to adolescence. This study examines the basic tenets of this hypothesis by performing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during well-established reward and threat processing tasks in 40 children and adolescents, aged 9–15 years. Method fMRI responses in the striatum and amygdala are fit to a model predicting that striatal reward and amygdala threat-responses will be unrelated in younger participants (aged 9–12 years), while older participants (aged 13–15 years) will differentially engage these structures. Results Our data are consistent with this model. Activity in the striatum and amygdala are comparable in younger children, but in older children, they are inversely related; those more responsive to reward show a reduced threat-response. Analyses testing age as a continuous variable yield consistent results. In addition, the proportion of threat to reward-response relates to self-reported approach behavior in older but not younger youth, exposing behavioral relevance in the relative level of activity in these structures. Conclusions Results are consistent with the notion that both individual and developmental differences drive reward-seeking behavior in adolescence. While these response patterns may serve adaptive functions in the shift to independence, skew in these systems may relate to increased rates of emotional psychopathology and risk-taking observed in adolescence.

Neural mechanisms of affective matching across faces and scenes

“…The emotional matching paradigm by Hariri et al . 6 and its extended version 7 are widely used as emotional reactivity measures, which reliably activate the amygdala 8–10 . Despite its current use in psychiatry, this paradigm has a potential drawback since faces with negative emotional expressions and negative social scenes are compared with simple geometric shapes.…”

Discovering the Lost Reward: Critical Locations for Endocannabinoid Modulation of the Cortico–Striatal Loop That Are Implicated in Major Depression

“…Interestingly, a rat model of depression exhibits sub-sensitivity in cocaine-seeking behavior, whereas antidepressant treatment raised their cocaine-induced DA release to the level of controls, resulting in increased cocaine-seeking behavior [ 75 ]. Further research is needed to investigate the shift from ventral and medial interneurons to the lateral compartment of the striatum including studies of the striatum gradients [ 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 ].…”

Conflict between Threat Sensitivity and Sensation Seeking in the Adolescent Brain: Role of the Hippocampus, and Neurobehavioural Plasticity Induced by Pleasurable Early Enriched Experience

“…Thus, with regard to threat–reward (approach–avoidance) conflict, Baker and Galvan [ 1 ] say that “…social interaction in adolescence can be as much rewarding as it is acutely terrifying” [ 1 ]. Likewise, Thomason and Marusak [ 25 ] state: “Willingness to take a chance, for example, engaging a new social peer, may be frightening, but also enlivening. […] two signals compete: the potential for failure or rebuke compete with the potential for rewarding social engagement.…”

“…[…] two signals compete: the potential for failure or rebuke compete with the potential for rewarding social engagement. […] One prominent theory of neurodevelopment—the triadic model […] holds that motivated behaviour is mediated by tension between reward (i.e., approach) and threat (i.e., avoidance) systems” [ 25 ]. However, despite the fact that some authors recognize the existence of “conflict” between the two opposite response tendencies during adolescence, such a “conflict” has not been experimentally addressed from a neurobiological standpoint.…”