Development of Multifaceted Risk Taking and the Relations to Sex Steroid Hormones: A Longitudinal Study

Risk taking is a multidimensional construct. It is currently unclear which aspects of risk‐taking change most during adolescence and if/how sex hormones contribute to risk‐taking tendencies. This study applied a longitudinal design with three time‐points, separated by 2 years, in participants aged 8–29 years (670 observations). The Balloon Analogue Risk Task, a delay discounting task, and various self‐report questionnaires were administered, to measure aspects of risk taking. Longitudinal analyses demonstrated mostly nonlinear age‐related patterns in risk‐taking behavior and approach‐related personality characteristics (peaking in late adolescence). Increased testosterone and estradiol were found to increase risk‐taking behavior and impulsive personality, but decrease avoidance‐like personality. This study demonstrates that risk taking is most pronounced in mid‐to‐late adolescence and suggests that sex hormones accelerate this maturational process.Article / Letter to editorInstituut PsychologieInstituut Pedagogische Wetenschappe

Increased ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity in adolescence benefits prosocial reinforcement learning

Learning which of our behaviors benefit others contributes to forming social relationships. An important period for the development of (pro)social behavior is adolescence, which is characterized by transitions in social connections. It is, however, unknown how learning to benefit others develops across adolescence and what the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms are. In this functional neuroimaging study, we assessed learning for self and others (i.e., prosocial learning) and the concurring neural tracking of prediction errors across adolescence (ages 9-21, N = 74). Participants performed a two-choice probabilistic reinforcement learning task in which outcomes resulted in monetary consequences for themselves, an unknown other, or no one. Participants from all ages were able to learn for themselves and others, but learning for others showed a more protracted developmental trajectory. Prediction errors for self were observed in the ventral striatum and showed no age-related differences. However, prediction error coding for others showed an age-related increase in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These results reveal insights into the computational mechanisms of learning for others across adolescence, and highlight that learning for self and others show different age-related patterns.Pathways through Adolescenc

Behavioral and neural development of cognitive control and riskydecision-making across adolescence

Pathways through Adolescenc

Development of Multifaceted Risk Taking and the Relations to Sex Steroid Hormones: A Longitudinal Study

Risk taking is a multidimensional construct. It is currently unclear which aspects of risk‐taking change most during adolescence and if/how sex hormones contribute to risk‐taking tendencies. This study applied a longitudinal design with three time‐points, separated by 2 years, in participants aged 8–29 years (670 observations). The Balloon Analogue Risk Task, a delay discounting task, and various self‐report questionnaires were administered, to measure aspects of risk taking. Longitudinal analyses demonstrated mostly nonlinear age‐related patterns in risk‐taking behavior and approach‐related personality characteristics (peaking in late adolescence). Increased testosterone and estradiol were found to increase risk‐taking behavior and impulsive personality, but decrease avoidance‐like personality. This study demonstrates that risk taking is most pronounced in mid‐to‐late adolescence and suggests that sex hormones accelerate this maturational process

Not all teens take risks: individual differences in the neural mechanisms of risky decision-making

Pathways through Adolescenc

Behavioral and neural pathways supporting the development of prosocial and risk-taking behavior across adolescence.

This study tested the pathways supporting adolescent development of prosocial and rebellious behavior. Self-report and structural brain development data were obtained in a three-wave, longitudinal neuroimaging study (8-29 years, N=210 at wave three). First, prosocial and rebellious behavior assessed at wave three were positively correlated. Perspective taking and intention to comfort uniquely predicted prosocial behavior, whereas fun seeking (current levels and longitudinal changes) predicted both prosocial and rebellious behaviors. These changes were accompanied by developmental declines in nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) volumes, but only faster decline of MPFC (faster maturity) related to less rebellious behavior. These findings point towards a possible differential susceptibility marker, fun seeking, as a predictor of both prosocial and rebellious developmental outcomesEducation and Child Studie

Longitudinal self-concept development in adolescence

This longitudinal behavioral neuroimaging study tested two hypotheses concerning self-concept development in adolescence: domain-specific self-concept and similarity between own (direct) and perceived peers' (reflected) opinions of the self. Participants (N=189; 10-24 years) evaluated their traits in academic, physical appearance, and prosocial domains from direct and reflected perspectives in an fMRI session across three timepoints (TP1: N=160; TP2: N=151; TP3: N=144). Behaviorally, we observed a mid-adolescent dip in self-concept positivity, which was strongest for the academic domain, showing domain-differentiation in mid-adolescence. Self-evaluations were associated with activity in e.g. medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) and Temporal Parietal Junction (TPJ). mPFC showed an adolescent-emerging peak in activation, pronounced more for direct than reflected self-evaluations. TPJ activation was generally stronger for reflected self-evaluations and activation linearly increased with age for both reflected and direct self-evaluations. Longitudinal prediction analyses showed that positivity of self-evaluations predicted increases in self-concept clarity and less fear of negative evaluation one and two years later, highlighting the developmental benefits of acquiring a positive self-concept. Together, we show that adolescent self-development is characterized by dissociable neural patterns underlying self-evaluations in different domains, and from reflected and direct perspectives, confirming adolescence as a formative phase for developing a coherent and positive self-concept

Joint spatial-spectral feature space clustering for speech activity detection from ecog signals

10.1109/TBME.2014.2298897IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering6141241-1250IEBE

Spatio-spectral analysis of ECoG signals during voice activity

10.1109/BIBE.2013.670153113th IEEE International Conference on BioInformatics and BioEngineering, IEEE BIBE 2013