White-matter tract connecting anterior insula to nucleus accumbens predicts greater future motivation in adolescents.

ABSTRACT: The motivation to approach or avoid incentives can change during adolescence. Advances in neuroimaging allow researchers to characterize specific brain circuits that underlie these developmental changes. Whereas activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) can predict approach toward incentive gain, activity in anterior insula (AIns) is associated with avoidance of incentive loss. Recent research characterized the structural white-matter tract connecting the two brain regions, but the tract has neither been characterized in adolescence nor linked to functional activity during incentive anticipation. In this study, we collected diffusion MRI and characterized the tract connecting the AIns to the NAcc for the first time in early adolescents. We then measured NAcc functional activity during a mon

SUBMITTER: Leong JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7776926 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature