Adolescent-specific patterns of behavior and neural activity during social reinforcement learning.

ABSTRACT: Humans are sophisticated social beings. Social cues from others are exceptionally salient, particularly during adolescence. Understanding how adolescents interpret and learn from variable social signals can provide insight into the observed shift in social sensitivity during this period. The present study tested 120 participants between the ages of 8 and 25 years on a social reinforcement learning task where the probability of receiving positive social feedback was parametrically manipulated. Seventy-eight of these participants completed the task during fMRI scanning. Modeling trial-by-trial learning, children and adults showed higher positive learning rates than did adolescents, suggesting that adolescents demonstrated less differentiation in their reaction times for peers who provided mo

SUBMITTER: Jones RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4127887 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature