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), whi

SUBMITTER: Thomason ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6207367 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature