Friendship stability in adolescence is associated with ventral striatum responses to vicarious rewards.

ABSTRACT: An important task for adolescents is to form and maintain friendships. In this three-wave biannual study, we used a longitudinal neuroscience perspective to examine the dynamics of friendship stability. Relative to childhood and adulthood, adolescence is marked by elevated ventral striatum activity when gaining self-serving rewards. Using a sample of participants between the ages of eight and twenty-eight, we tested age-related changes in ventral striatum response to gaining for stable (n = 48) versus unstable best friends (n = 75) (and self). In participants with stable friendships, we observed a quadratic developmental trajectory of ventral striatum responses to winning versus losing rewards for friends, whereas participants with unstable best friends showed no age-related changes. Ventr

SUBMITTER: Schreuders E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7804936 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature