Adolescent risky decision-making: Neurocognitive development of reward and control regions
Section snippets
Participants
Fifty-eight healthy, right-handed volunteers were included in the study. To examine developmental changes across adolescence, we recruited participants from four age groups: thirteen pre-pubertal children (aged 8–10 years; 8 female; mean age 9.7, SD = .9 mean Tanner stage 1.83, SD = .72), fifteen pubertal adolescents (aged 12–14 years; 8 female; mean age 13.4, SD = .8 mean Tanner stage 3.13, SD = .99), fifteen post-pubertal adolescents (aged 16–17 years; 7 female; mean age = 17.1, SD = .7 mean Tanner stage
Risk-taking behavior and reaction times (RTs)
We submitted the percentage of High-Risk gambles to a repeated measures ANOVA with Age group as between subjects factor and Reward (2, 4, 6, and 8 Euro) as within subjects factor. Risk-taking increased when the reward at stake was higher (main effect Reward, F (3, 162) = 39.13, p < .001). On average, risk-taking did not differ between age groups (p = .51), but there was a significant Age group × Reward interaction (F (9, 162) = 2.57, p < .005) (see Fig. 1B). Follow-up ANOVAs for the age groups separately
Discussion
The main goal of this study was to test for two different patterns of functional brain development that have been proposed to account for adolescent risk-taking: an inverted U-shaped pattern for reward-related regions with a peak in adolescence, and a linear pattern for regions associated with cognitive control. Recent models of adolescent risk-taking have described risk-taking in adolescence as a consequence of these different developmental trajectories (Casey et al., 2008, Ernst et al., 2006,
Conclusion
In summary, the current findings demonstrate that brain regions implicated in reward processing and cognitive control in decision-making under risk follow distinct developmental trajectories. Reward-related regions show an increased sensitivity to rewards in adolescence and follow an inverted U-shaped developmental pattern, whereas cognitive control-related regions mature slowly and follow a linear development. In addition, patterns of activation in dorsal and ventral medial PFC are related to
Acknowledgments
Work by authors (E.A.C. and S.A.R.B.R.) is supported by Vidi grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
References (51)
Trajectories of brain development: point of vulnerability or window of opportunity?
Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.
(2003)The development of risk-taking: a multi-perspective review
Dev. Rev.
(2006)- et al.
Functional imaging of neural responses to expectancy and experience of monetary gains and losses
Neuron
(2001) - et al.
Neurodevelopmental changes in working memory and cognitive control
Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.
(2007) - et al.
Structural and functional brain development and its relation to cognitive development
Biol. Psychol.
(2000) - et al.
Changes in cerebral functional organization during cognitive development
Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.
(2005) - et al.
The adolescent brain
Dev. Rev.
(2008) - et al.
Amygdala and nucleus accumbens in responses to receipt and omission of gains in adults and adolescents
NeuroImage
(2005) - et al.
Neural substrates of choice selection in adults and adolescents: development of the ventrolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices
Neuropsychologia
(2007) - et al.
Risk taking in adolescence: a decision-making perspective
Dev. Rev.
(1992)
The maturation of incentive processing and cognitive control
Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav.
The functional neuroanatomy of the human orbitofrontal cortex: evidence from neuroimaging and neuropsychology
Prog. Neurobiol.
Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging of reward-related brain circuitry in children and adolescents
Biol. Psychiatry
Temporal prediction errors in a passive learning task activate human striatum
Neuron
Neural responses during anticipation of a primary taste reward
Neuron
Current theories of risk and rational decision making
Dev. Rev.
Risk taking under the influence: a fuzzy-trace theory of emotion in adolescence
Dev. Rev.
Neural substrates of reward magnitude, probability, and risk during a wheel of fortune decision-making task
NeuroImage
The adolescent brain and age-related behavioral manifestations
Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.
Neural correlates of developmental differences in risk estimation and feedback processing
Neuropsychologia
Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4–18 and 1991 Profile
Incentive-elicited brain activation in adolescents: similarities and differences from young adults
J. Neurosci.
Region of interest analysis using an spm toolbox
Developmental neurocircuitry of motivation in adolescence: a critical period of addiction vulnerability
Am. J. Psychiatry
Brain web: online interface to a 3D MRI simulated brain database
NeuroImage
Cited by (358)
Risk-related brain activation is linked to longitudinal changes in adolescent health risk behaviors
2023, Developmental Cognitive NeuroscienceSelf-control training supplementing inpatient multidisciplinary obesity treatment in children and adolescents
2023, Behaviour Research and TherapyPuberty and risky decision-making in male adolescents
2023, Developmental Cognitive NeuroscienceNeural correlates associated with conformity in adolescent and young adult men
2023, Developmental Cognitive NeuroscienceThe body keeps the score: The neurobiological profile of traumatized adolescents
2023, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral ReviewsAdolescent neurocognitive development
2023, Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Health, First Edition