Citation

Op de Macks ZA, Bunge SA, Bell ON, Kriegsfeld LJ, Kayser AS, Dahl RE. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 2016; 12(2): 240-250.

Affiliation

School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 50 University Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, USA Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley, 1121 Tolman Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-1690, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/scan/nsw125

PMID

27614768

Abstract

The onset of adolescence is associated with a developmental shift toward peers that contributes to increased prioritization for learning about and achieving social status, and an increased tendency to engage in risky behaviors. There is relatively little understanding about the specific links between these adolescent-typical phenomena, particularly regarding their neural underpinnings. Based on existing models that suggest the role of puberty in promoting adolescent status-seeking and risk-taking tendencies, we investigated the relation of pubertal hormones with behavioral and neural responses to status-relevant social information in the context of risk taking. We used a probabilistic decision task in which 11-to-13-year-old girls chose to take a risk, or not, while receiving either social rank or monetary performance feedback. Feedback type did not differentially influence risk-taking behavior, but whole-brain imaging results showed that activation in the anterior insula was increased for risk taking in the social rank feedback condition compared to the monetary feedback condition. This heightened activation was more pronounced in girls with higher estradiol levels. These findings suggest that brain processes involved in adolescent risky decisions may be influenced by the desire for social-status enhancement and provide preliminary evidence for the role of pubertal hormones in enhancing this adolescent-typical social sensitivity.

© The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press.

Language: en