Citation

Capella J, Jorgensen NA, Kwon SJ, Maza MT, Prinstein MJ, Lindquist KA, Telzer EH. Dev. Cogn. Neurosci. 2023; 63: e101290.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101290

PMID

37595321

Abstract

Adolescents are particularly attuned to popularity within peer groups, which impacts behaviors such as risk-taking and prosocial behavior. Neurodevelopmental changes orient adolescents toward salient social cues in their environment. We examined whether neural regions that track popularity are associated with longitudinal changes in risk-taking and prosocial behavior. During an fMRI scan, adolescents (n = 109, M(age)=13.59, SD=0.59) viewed pictures of their popular and unpopular classmates based on sociometric nominations from their social networks. Neural tracking of high popularity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex was associated with increases in risk-taking behavior, whereas tracking of low popularity in the right insula was associated with increases in prosocial behavior.

RESULTS suggest that individual differences in neural tracking of popularity relate to longitudinal changes in adolescents' social behaviors.

Language: en

Keywords

fMRI; Adolescence; Peer status; Popularity; Prosocial; Risk-taking