Incentive-elicited mesolimbic activation and externalizing symptomatology in adolescents.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Opponent-process theories of externalizing disorders (ExD) attribute them to some combination of overactive reward processing systems and/or underactive behavior inhibition systems. Reward processing has been indexed by recruitment of incentive-motivational neurocircuitry of the ventral striatum (VS), including nucleus accumbens (NAcc).

Methods

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with an incentive task to determine whether externalizing symptomatology in adolescence is correlated with an enhanced VS recruitment by cues for rewards, or by deliveries of rewards. Twelve community-recruited adolescents with externalizing disorders (AED) and 12 age/gender-matched controls responded to targets to win or avoid losing $0, $0.20, $1, $5, or an unknown amou

SUBMITTER: Bjork JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2915786 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature