Win for your kin: Neural responses to personal and vicarious rewards when mothers win for their adolescent children

Mother-child relationships change considerably in adolescence, but it is not yet understood how mothers experience vicarious rewards for their adolescent children. In the current study, we investigated neural responses of twenty mothers winning and losing money for their best friend and for their adolescent child in a gambling task. During the task, functional neuroimaging data were acquired. We examined the activation patterns when playing for or winning for self, adolescent children and friends in four a-priori selected ROIs (nucleus accumbens, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus and temporo-parietal junction). Behaviorally, mothers indicated that they experienced most enjoyment when they gained money for their children and that their children deserved to win more, relative to friends and self. At the neural level, nucleus accumbens activity was stronger when winning versus losing. This pattern was not only found when playing for self, but also for friends and children, possibly reflecting the rewarding value of vicarious prosocial gains. In addition, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and temporo-parietal junction were more active when receiving outcomes for children and friends compared to self, possibly reflecting increased recruitment of mentalizing processes. Interestingly, activity in this network was stronger for mothers who indicated that their children and friends deserved to win more. These findings provide initial evidence that vicarious rewards for one’s children are processed similarly as rewards for self, and that activation in social brain regions are related to social closeness.Pathways through Adolescenc

Win for your kin: Neural responses to personal and vicarious rewards when mothers win for their adolescent children

Mother-child relationships change considerably in adolescence, but it is not yet understood how mothers experience vicarious rewards for their adolescent children. In the current study, we investigated neural responses of twenty mothers winning and losing money for their best friend and for their adolescent child in a gambling task. During the task, functional neuroimaging data were acquired. We examined the activation patterns when playing for or winning for self, adolescent children and friends in four a-priori selected ROIs (nucleus accumbens, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus and temporo-parietal junction). Behaviorally, mothers indicated that they experienced most enjoyment when they gained money for their children and that their children deserved to win more, relative to friends and self. At the neural level, nucleus accumbens activity was stronger when winning versus losing. This pattern was not only found when playing for self, but also for friends and children, possibly reflecting the rewarding value of vicarious prosocial gains. In addition, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and temporo-parietal junction were more active when receiving outcomes for children and friends compared to self, possibly reflecting increased recruitment of mentalizing processes. Interestingly, activity in this network was stronger for mothers who indicated that their children and friends deserved to win more. These findings provide initial evidence that vicarious rewards for one’s children are processed similarly as rewards for self, and that activation in social brain regions are related to social closeness

The relationship between puberty and social emotion processing

The social brain undergoes developmental change during adolescence, and pubertal hormones are hypothesized to contribute to this development. We used fMRI to explore how pubertal indicators (salivary concentrations of testosterone, oestradiol and DHEA; pubertal stage; menarcheal status) relate to brain activity during a social emotion task. Forty-two females aged 11.1 to 13.7 years underwent fMRI scanning while reading scenarios pertaining either to social emotions, which require the representation of another person’s mental states, or to basic emotions, which do not. Pubertal stage and menarcheal status were used to assign girls to early or late puberty groups. Across the entire sample, the contrast between social versus basic emotion resulted in activity within the social brain network, including dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), the posterior superior temporal sulcus, and the anterior temporal cortex (ATC) in both hemispheres. Increased hormone levels (independent of age) were associated with higher left ATC activity during social emotion processing. More advanced age (independent of hormone levels) was associated with lower DMPFC activity during social emotion processing. Our results suggest functionally dissociable effects of pubertal hormones and age on the adolescent social brain

The Role of Pubertal Development in Adolescent Risky Decision-Making

Adolescence is a period in development characterized by a greater tendency to engage in risky behaviors. The onset of adolescence is marked by puberty, which involves a dramatic rise in sex steroids. Existing neurobiological models have proposed that the rise in sex steroids during puberty influences the development of the adolescent brain, in particular the brain regions involved in the processing of socio-emotional information. According to these models, adolescents engage in more risk taking compared to children and adults because they process rewards differently and are more sensitive to their social environment. In a separate line of research, it has been hypothesized that changes in sleep during adolescence also contribute to the greater tendency to take risks. In this dissertation, we explored the role of pubertal hormones, social information, and sleep in adolescent risky decisions. To measure risk taking, we designed a child-friendly probabilistic decision-making game called the Jackpot task. In this task, participants could choose to take a risk or play it safe based on explicitly provided information about the risk level and stakes involved in their decision, and the type of cumulative performance feedback (social or monetary) they received. This task was administered in two independent samples of adolescents while they were lying in an MRI scanner, which allowed for examination of the reward-related brain processes associated with their risky choices. Pubertal hormone levels were measured based on saliva provided by the participants. Sleep was measured using a self-report questionnaire that was administered across five days. Participants also filled out various measures to capture individual differences in personality. While we did not find evidence for a peak in reward-related brain activation during adolescence, we did find large individual differences among adolescents in their behavior as well as their neural responses to rewards and social information. Reward-related brain responses associated with risk taking corresponded with higher levels of testosterone and stronger self-reported approach tendencies. The influence of social feedback, in the context of risky decisions, was stronger in girls with higher levels of estradiol and girls who reported greater susceptibility to peer influence. Adolescent girls with a preference for later bedtimes and with more irregular sleep patterns tended to make more risky decisions. These findings provide insight into some of the factors that contribute to adolescent risk taking and highlight the importance of using an interdisciplinary approach to investigate adolescent behavior