Lasting associations between early-childhood temperament and late-adolescent reward-circuitry response to peer feedback

Pathways to adolescent social anxiety: Testing interactions between neural social reward function and perceived social threat in daily life

Recent theories suggest that for youth highly sensitive to incentives, perceiving more social threat may contribute to social anxiety (SA) symptoms. In 129 girls (ages 11-13) oversampled for shy/fearful temperament, we thus examined how interactions between neural responses to social reward (vs. neutral) cues (measured during anticipation of peer feedback) and perceived social threat in daily peer interactions (measured using ecological momentary assessment) predict SA symptoms two years later. No significant interactions emerged when neural reward function was modeled as a latent factor. Secondary analyses showed that higher perceived social threat was associated with more severe SA symptoms two years later only for girls with higher basolateral amygdala (BLA) activation to social reward cues at baseline. Interaction effects were specific to BLA activation to social reward (not threat) cues, though a main effect of BLA activation to social threat (vs. neutral) cues on SA emerged. Unexpectedly, interactions between social threat and BLA activation to social reward cues also predicted generalized anxiety and depression symptoms two years later, suggesting possible transdiagnostic risk pathways. Perceiving high social threat may be particularly detrimental for youth highly sensitive to reward incentives, potentially due to mediating reward learning processes, though this remains to be tested.

Higher Intersubject Variability in Neural Response to Narrative Social Stimuli Among Youth With Higher Social Anxiety

OBJECTIVE

Social anxiety is associated with alterations in socioemotional processing, but the pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Movies present an opportunity to examine more naturalistic socioemotional processing by providing narrative and sensory context to emotion cues. This study aimed to characterize associations between neural response to contextualized social cues and social anxiety symptoms in children.

METHOD

Data from the Healthy Brain Network (final N = 740; age range 5-15 years) were split into discovery and replication samples to maximize generalizability of findings. Associations of parent- and self-reported social anxiety (Screen for Child Anxiety-related Emotional Disorders) with mean differences and person-to-person variability in functional magnetic resonance imaging-measured activation to 2 emotionally dynamic movies were characterized.

RESULTS

Though no evidence was found to indicate social anxiety symptoms were associated with mean differences in neural activity to emotional content (fit Spearman rs < 0.09), children with high social anxiety symptoms had higher intersubject activation variability in the posterior cingulate, supramarginal gyrus, and inferior frontal gyrus (Bonferroni familywise error-corrected ps < .05)-regions associated with attention, alertness, and emotion cue processing. Identified regions varied by age group and informant. Across ages, these effects were enhanced for scenes containing greater sensory intensity (brighter, louder, more motion, more vibrance).

CONCLUSION

These results provide evidence that children with high social anxiety symptoms show high person-to-person variability in the neural processing of sensory aspects of emotional content. These data indicate that children with high social anxiety may require personalized interventions for sensory and emotional difficulties, as the underlying neurology differs from child to child.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT

One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented sexual and/or gender groups in science. One or more of the authors of this paper received support from a program designed to increase minority representation in science. We actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our author group. We actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our author group. While citing references scientifically relevant for this work, we also actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our reference list. While citing references scientifically relevant for this work, we also actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our reference list.

Associations between age, social reward processing and social anxiety symptoms

Reward processing undergoes marked changes in adolescence, with social interactions representing a powerful source of reward. Reward processing is also an important factor in the development of social anxiety disorder, a condition that most commonly first appears in adolescence. This study investigated the relationship between age, social reward processing and social anxiety in a cross-sectional sample of female participants (N = 80) aged 13-34. Participants performed two versions of a probabilistic reward anticipation task, in which a speeded response could result in different probabilities of receiving either social or monetary rewarding feedback. Participants also completed self-report assessments of social reward value, trait anxiety and social anxiety symptoms. At high reward probabilities, performance on both reward tasks showed a quadratic effect of age, with the fastest responses at around 22-24 years. A similar quadratic effect was found for subjective liking ratings of both reward stimuli, although these were not associated with performance. Social anxiety was not associated with a subjective liking of the rewards but did predict performance on both tasks at all reward probabilities. Age-related variation in reward processing was not accounted for by age-related variation in social anxiety symptoms, suggesting that, while both social anxiety and age were associated with variation in reward processing, their effects were largely independent. Together, these findings provide evidence that social reward processing continues to develop across adolescence and that individual differences in social anxiety should be considered when considering reward sensitivity during this period.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04551-y.

Annual Research Review: Developmental pathways linking early behavioral inhibition to later anxiety

Behavioral Inhibition is a temperament identified in the first years of life that enhances the risk for development of anxiety during late childhood and adolescence. Amongst children characterized with this temperament, only around 40 percent go on to develop anxiety disorders, meaning that more than half of these children do not. Over the past 20 years, research has documented within-child and socio-contextual factors that support differing developmental pathways. This review provides a historical perspective on the research documenting the origins of this temperament, its biological correlates, and the factors that enhance or mitigate risk for development of anxiety. We review as well, research findings from two longitudinal cohorts that have identified moderators of behavioral inhibition in understanding pathways to anxiety. Research on these moderators has led us to develop the Detection and Dual Control (DDC) framework to understand differing developmental trajectories among behaviorally inhibited children. In this review, we use this framework to explain why and how specific cognitive and socio-contextual factors influence differential pathways to anxiety versus resilience.

Diminished prospective mental representations of reward mediate reward learning strategies among youth with internalizing symptoms

BACKGROUND

Adolescent internalizing symptoms and trauma exposure have been linked with altered reward learning processes and decreased ventral striatal responses to rewarding cues. Recent computational work on decision-making highlights an important role for prospective representations of the imagined outcomes of different choices. This study tested whether internalizing symptoms and trauma exposure among youth impact the generation of prospective reward representations during decision-making and potentially mediate altered behavioral strategies during reward learning.

METHODS

Sixty-one adolescent females with varying exposure to interpersonal violence exposure (n = 31 with histories of physical or sexual assault) and severity of internalizing symptoms completed a social reward learning task during fMRI. Multivariate pattern analyses (MVPA) were used to decode neural reward representations at the time of choice.

RESULTS

MVPA demonstrated that rewarding outcomes could accurately be decoded within several large-scale distributed networks (e.g. frontoparietal and striatum networks), that these reward representations were reactivated prospectively at the time of choice in proportion to the expected probability of receiving reward, and that youth with behavioral strategies that favored exploiting high reward options demonstrated greater prospective generation of reward representations. Youth internalizing symptoms, but not trauma exposure characteristics, were negatively associated with both the behavioral strategy of exploiting high reward options as well as the prospective generation of reward representations in the striatum.

CONCLUSIONS

These data suggest diminished prospective mental simulation of reward as a mechanism of altered reward learning strategies among youth with internalizing symptoms.

Thumbs up or thumbs down: neural processing of social feedback and links to social motivation in adolescent girls

Adolescence is a period of rapid biological and psychological development, characterized by increasing emotional reactivity and risk-taking, especially in peer contexts. Theories of adolescent neural development suggest that the balance in sensitivity across neural threat, reward and regulatory systems contributes to these changes. Building on previous research, this study used a novel social feedback task to explore activation and functional connectivity in the context of social threat and reward in a sample of mid-adolescent girls (n = 86, Mage = 16.32). When receiving negative peer feedback, adolescents showed elevated activation in, and amygdala connectivity with, social processing regions [e.g. medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ)]. When receiving positive feedback, adolescents showed elevated activation in social and reward (e.g. mPFC and ventromedial prefrontal cortex) processing regions and less striatum-cerebellum connectivity. To understand the psychological implications of neural activation and co-activation, we examined associations between neural processing of threat and reward and self-reported social goals. Avoidance goals predicted elevated amygdala and striatum connectivity with social processing regions [e.g. medial temporal gyrus (MTG)], whereas approach goals predicted deactivation in social processing regions (e.g. MTG/TPJ and precuneus), highlighting the importance of considering individual differences in sensitivity to social threat and reward in adolescence.

Persistence, Reward Dependence, and Sensitivity to Reward Are Associated With Unexpected Salience Response in Girls but Not in Adult Women: Implications for Psychiatric Vulnerabilities

BACKGROUND

Adolescence is a critical period for the development of not only personality but also psychopathology. These processes may be specific to sex, and brain reward circuits may have a role. Here, we studied how reward processing and temperament associations differ across adolescent and adult females.

METHODS

A total of 29 adolescent girls and 41 adult women completed temperament assessments and performed a classical taste conditioning paradigm during brain imaging. Data were analyzed for the dopamine-related prediction error response. In addition, unexpected stimulus receipt or omission and expected receipt response were also analyzed. Heat maps identified cortical-subcortical brain response associations.

RESULTS

Adolescents showed stronger prediction error and unexpected receipt and omission responses (partial η² = 0.063 to 0.166; p = .001 to .043) in insula, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and striatum than adults. Expected stimulus receipt response was similar between groups. In adolescents versus adults, persistence was more strongly positively related to prediction error (OFC, insula, striatum; Fisher's z = 1.704 to 3.008; p = .001 to .044) and unexpected stimulus receipt (OFC, insula; Fisher's z = 1.843 to 2.051; p = .014 to .033) and negatively with omission (OFC, insula, striatum; Fisher's z = -1.905 to -3.069; p = .001 to .028). Reward sensitivity and reward dependence correlated more positively with unexpected stimulus receipt and more negatively with stimulus omission response in adolescents. Adolescents showed significant correlations between the striatum and FC for unexpected stimulus receipt and omission that correlated with persistence but were absent in adults.

CONCLUSIONS

Associations between temperamental traits and brain reward response may provide neurotypical markers that contribute to developing adaptive or maladaptive behavior patterns when transitioning from adolescence to adulthood.

Early stressful experiences are associated with reduced neural responses to naturalistic emotional and social content in children

How do children's experiences relate to their naturalistic emotional and social processing? Because children can struggle with tasks in the scanner, we collected fMRI data while 4-to-11-year-olds watched a short film with positive and negative emotional events, and rich parent-child interactions (n = 70). We captured broad, normative stressful experiences by examining socioeconomic status (SES) and stressful life events, as well as children's more proximal experiences with their parents. For a sub-sample (n = 30), parenting behaviors were measured during a parent-child interaction, consisting of a picture book, a challenging puzzle, and free play with novel toys. We characterized positive parenting behaviors (e.g., warmth, praise) and negative parenting behaviors (e.g., harsh tone, physical control). We found that higher SES was related to greater activity in medial orbitofrontal cortex during parent-child interaction movie events. Negative parenting behaviors were associated with less activation of the ventral tegmental area and cerebellum during positive emotional events. In a region-of-interest analysis, we found that stressful life events and negative parenting behaviors were associated with less activation of the amygdala during positive emotional events. These exploratory results demonstrate the promise of using movie fMRI to study how early experiences may shape emotional, social, and motivational processes.

The brain in social context: A systematic review of substance use and social processing from adolescence to young adulthood

Substance use escalates between adolescence and young adulthood, and most experimentation occurs among peers. To understand underlying mechanisms, research has focused on neural response during relevant psychological processes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research provides a wealth of information about brain activity when processing monetary rewards; however, most studies have used tasks devoid of social stimuli. Given that adolescent neurodevelopment is sculpted by the push-and-pull of peers and emotions, identifying neural substrates is important for intervention. We systematically reviewed 28 fMRI studies examining substance use and neural responses to stimuli including social reward, emotional faces, social influence, and social stressors. We found substance use was positively associated with social-reward activity (e.g., in the ventral striatum), and negatively with social-stress activity (e.g., in the amygdala). For emotion, findings were mixed with more use linked to heightened response (e.g., in amygdala), but also with decreased response (e.g., in insula). For social influence, evidence supported both positive (e.g., cannabis and nucleus accumbens during conformity) and negative (e.g., polydrug and ventromedial PFC during peers' choices) relations between activity and use. Based on the literature, we offer recommendations for future research on the neural processing of social information to better identify risks for substance use.

Positive valence systems in youth anxiety development: A scoping review

Research on pathophysiological mechanisms supporting anxiety development in youth has traditionally focused on the role of threat systems. However, emerging research suggests that the positive valence system (PVS) may also play a strong and unique role in the development and maintenance of anxiety during childhood and adolescence. To better understand the connection between the PVS and anxiety, this scoping review describes current research spanning multiple units of analysis (i.e., self-report, behavior, neural circuits) linking child and adolescent anxiety and risk for anxiety to various PVS constructs (i.e., positive affect, reward responsiveness, reward learning and decision-making). After screening, 78 peer-reviewed articles and dissertations published between 1998 and May 2021 were included in a qualitative review. Though some consistencies in the literature were found, such as high neural reactivity to incentive anticipation in youth at temperamental risk for social anxiety and blunted positive affect in youth with social anxiety disorder, the literature is largely inconsistent. Inconsistencies could be related to the small number of similar studies, small and homogenous study samples, and variability in methodologies employed in this research. It cannot be confirmed whether findings linking PVS constructs to anxiety are unique to anxiety symptoms or better accounted for by co-occurring depressive symptoms. This review concludes with recommendations for robust future research in this area.

Reward-Related Neural Circuitry in Depressed and Anxious Adolescents: A Human Connectome Project

OBJECTIVE

Although depression and anxiety often have distinct etiologies, they frequently co-occur in adolescence. Recent initiatives have underscored the importance of developing new ways of classifying mental illness based on underlying neural dimensions that cut across traditional diagnostic boundaries. Accordingly, the aim of the study was to clarify reward-related neural circuitry that may characterize depressed-anxious youth.

METHOD

The Boston Adolescent Neuroimaging of Depression and Anxiety Human Connectome Project tested group differences regarding subcortical volume and nucleus accumbens activation during an incentive processing task among 14- to 17-year-old adolescents presenting with a primary depressive and/or anxiety disorder (n = 129) or no lifetime history of mental disorders (n = 64). In addition, multimodal modeling examined predictors of depression and anxiety symptom change over a 6-month follow-up period.

RESULTS

Our findings highlighted considerable convergence. Relative to healthy youth, depressed-anxious adolescents exhibited reduced nucleus accumbens volume and activation following reward receipt. These findings remained when removing all medicated participants (∼59% of depressed-anxious youth). Subgroup analyses comparing anxious-only, depressed-anxious, and healthy youth also were largely consistent. Multimodal modeling showed that only structural alterations predicted depressive symptoms over time.

CONCLUSION

Multimodal findings highlight alterations within nucleus accumbens structure and function that characterize depressed-anxious adolescents. In the current hypothesis-driven analyses, however, only reduced nucleus accumbens volume predicted depressive symptoms over time. An important next step will be to clarify why structural alterations have an impact on reward-related processes and associated symptoms.

The Transdiagnostic Origins of Anxiety and Depression During the Pediatric Period: Linking NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Constructs to Ecological Systems

In the last decade, an abundance of research has utilized the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework to examine mechanisms underlying anxiety and depression in youth. However, relatively little work has examined how these mechanistic intrapersonal processes intersect with context during childhood and adolescence. The current paper covers reviews and meta-analyses that have linked RDoC-relevant constructs to ecological systems in internalizing problems in youth. Specifically, cognitive, biological, and affective factors within the RDoC framework were examined. Based on these reviews and some of the original empirical research they cover, we highlight the integral role of ecological factors to the RDoC framework in predicting onset and maintenance of internalizing problems in youth. Specific recommendations are provided for researchers using the RDoC framework to inform future research integrating ecological systems and development. We advocate for future research and research funding to focus on better integration of the environment and development into the RDoC framework.

The endocannabinoid system in social anxiety disorder: from pathophysiology to novel therapeutics

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a highly prevalent psychiatric disorder that presents with an early age of onset, chronic disease course, and increased risk of psychiatric comorbidity. Current treatment options for SAD are associated with low response rates, suboptimal efficacy, and possible risk of adverse effects. Investigation of new neurobiological mechanisms may aid in the identification of more specific therapeutic targets for the treatment of this disorder. Emerging evidence suggests that the endogenous cannabinoid system, also referred to as the endocannabinoid system (ECS), could play a potential role in the pathophysiology of SAD. This review discusses the known pathophysiological mechanisms of SAD, the potential role of the ECS in this disorder, current drugs targeting the ECS, and the potential of these novel compounds to enhance the therapeutic armamentarium for SAD. Further investigational efforts, specifically in human populations, are warranted to improve our knowledge of the ECS in SAD.

Neural Responses to Social Reward Predict Depressive Symptoms in Adolescent Girls During the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVE

Adolescent depression is increasing during the COVID-19 pandemic, possibly related to dramatic social changes. Individual-level factors that contribute to social functioning, such as temperament and neural reactivity to social feedback, may confer risk for or resilience against depressive symptoms during the pandemic.

METHODS

Ninety-three girls (12-17 years) oversampled for high shy/fearful temperament were recruited from a longitudinal study for a follow-up COVID-19 study. During the parent study (2016-2018), participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging task eliciting neural activity to performance-related social feedback. Depressive symptoms were assessed during the parent study and COVID-19 follow-up (April-May 2020). In 65 participants with complete data, we examined how interactions between temperament and neural activation to social reward or punishment in a socio-affective brain network predict depressive symptoms during COVID-19.

RESULTS

Depressive symptoms increased during COVID-19. Significant interactions between temperament and caudate, putamen, and insula activation to social reward were found. Girls high in shy/fearful temperament showed negative associations between neural activation to social reward and COVID-19 depressive symptoms, whereas girls lower in shy/fearful temperament showed positive associations.

CONCLUSIONS

Girls high in shy/fearful temperament with reduced neural activation to social reward may be less likely to engage socially, which could be detrimental during the pandemic when social interactions are limited. In contrast, girls lower in shy/fearful temperament with heightened neural reactivity to social reward may be highly motivated to engage socially, which could also be detrimental with limited social opportunities. In both cases, improving social connection during the pandemic may attenuate or prevent depressive symptoms.

Children's shyness and neural responses to social exclusion: Patterns of midfrontal theta power usually not observed until adolescence

Adverse peer experiences, such as social exclusion, are known risks for socioemotional problems among shy youth. Yet, little is known about how shy children and adolescents process social exclusion in the brain and whether these responses are amplified in adolescence. Using the Cyberball task, we examined mediofrontal theta (4-7 Hz) event-related EEG spectral power during conditions of fair play and social exclusion in 122 participants (58 children, ages 10-12 years, and 64 adolescents, ages 14-17 years). Age effects of the task showed that adolescents displayed heightened theta power to both outright rejection and baseline "not my turn" events, whereas children showed higher theta power to rejection compared with "not my turn" events. Further results on individual differences showed that children with relatively higher levels of shyness displayed enhanced theta power to both rejection and "not my turn" events-a pattern that also was observed in adolescents. These findings suggest that a pattern of heightened neural sensitivity to both outright social exclusion and threats of exclusion, which is the norm by adolescence, also is observed in children with higher levels of shyness. The similar neural response pattern might be driven by salient social motivations that similarly modify the social cognition and behaviors of these groups and might reflect neural antecedents of rejection sensitivity.

Understanding the Emergence of Social Anxiety in Children With Behavioral Inhibition

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament characterized in early childhood by distress to novelty and avoidance of unfamiliar people, and it is one of the best-known risk factors for the development of social anxiety. However, nearly 60% of children with BI do not go on to meet criteria for social anxiety disorder. In this review we present an approach to understanding differential developmental trajectories among children with BI. We review research using laboratory-based tasks that isolate specific attention processes that enhance versus mitigate risk for social anxiety among behaviorally inhibited children and studies that suggest that BI is associated with heightened detection of novelty or threat. Moreover, stimulus-driven control processes, which we term "automatic control," increase the probability that behaviorally inhibited children display socially reticent behavior and develop social anxiety. In contrast, goal-driven control processes, which we term "planful control," decrease risk for anxiety. We suggest that these three categories of processes (detection, automatic control, and planful control) function together to determine whether behaviorally inhibited children are able to flexibly regulate their initial reactions to novelty, and in turn, decrease risk for social anxiety. Although laboratory-based tasks have identified these processes underlying risk and resilience, the challenge is linking them to the emotions, thoughts, and behaviors of behaviorally inhibited children in real-world contexts.

Variable- and person-centered approaches to affect-biased attention in infancy reveal unique relations with infant negative affect and maternal anxiety

Affect-biased attention is an automatic process that prioritizes emotionally or motivationally salient stimuli. Several models of affect-biased attention and its development suggest that it comprises an individual's ability to both engage with and disengage from emotional stimuli. Researchers typically rely on singular tasks to measure affect-biased attention, which may lead to inconsistent results across studies. Here we examined affect-biased attention across three tasks in a unique sample of 193 infants, using both variable-centered (factor analysis; FA) and person-centered (latent profile analysis; LPA) approaches. Using exploratory FA, we found evidence for two factors of affect-biased attention: an Engagement factor and a Disengagement factor, where greater maternal anxiety was related to less engagement with faces. Using LPA, we found two groups of infants with different patterns of affect-biased attention: a Vigilant group and an Avoidant group. A significant interaction noted that infants higher in negative affect who also had more anxious mothers were most likely to be in the Vigilant group. Overall, these results suggest that both FA and LPA are viable approaches for studying distinct questions related to the development of affect-biased attention, and set the stage for future longitudinal work examining the role of infant negative affect and maternal anxiety in the emergence of affect-biased attention.

Dyadic behavioral synchrony between behaviorally inhibited and non-inhibited peers is associated with concordance in EEG frontal Alpha asymmetry and Delta-Beta coupling

Behavioral synchrony during social interactions is foundational for the development of social relationships. Behavioral inhibition (BI), characterized by wariness to social novelty and increased anxiety, may influence how children engage in moment-to-moment behavioral synchrony. EEG-derived frontal Alpha asymmetry and Delta-Beta coupling reflect approach-avoidance behavior and emotion regulation, respectively. We examined the relation between intradyadic behavioral synchrony in energy levels and peer gaze, BI, and EEG measures (N = 136, 68 dyads, Mean_Age = 10.90 years) during unstructured and structured interactions. Energy levels were negatively synchronized when both children exhibited right Alpha asymmetry. If either child exhibited left Alpha asymmetry, the dyad exhibited more positive synchrony. Peer gaze was less synchronized during the unstructured task with left Alpha asymmetry. Greater positive Delta-Beta coupling in BI children was associated with more peer gaze synchrony. Peer gaze was asynchronous when BI children exhibited negative Delta-Beta coupling and their partner exhibited positive coupling.

Brain responses to social feedback in internalizing disorders: A comprehensive review

Problems with interpersonal relationships are often a chief complaint among those seeking psychiatric treatment; yet heterogeneity and homogeneity across disorders suggests both common and unique mechanisms of impaired interpersonal relationships. Basic science research has begun yielding insights into how the brain responds to social feedback. Understanding how these processes differ as a function of psychopathology can begin to inform the mechanisms that give rise to such interpersonal dysfunction, potentially helping to identify differential treatment targets. We reviewed 46 studies that measured the relationship between brain responses to social feedback and internalizing psychopathology. We found that socially relevant anxiety was associated with amygdala hyperactivity to the anticipation of social feedback. Depression was related to hyperreactivity of regions in the cingulo-opercular network to negative social feedback. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) was associated with hyperactivity of regions in the default mode network to negative social feedback. The review also identified key insights into methodological limitations and potential future directions for the field.

Neighborhood Deprivation Shapes Motivational-Neurocircuit Recruitment in Children

Implementing motivated behaviors on the basis of prior reward is central to adaptive human functioning, but aberrant reward-motivated behavior is a core feature of neuropsychiatric illness. Children from disadvantaged neighborhoods have decreased access to rewards, which may shape motivational neurocircuits and risk for psychopathology. Here, we leveraged the unprecedented neuroimaging data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study to test the hypothesis that neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage shapes the functional recruitment of motivational neurocircuits in children. Specifically, via the ABCD study's monetary-incentive-delay task (N = 6,396 children; age: 9-10 years), we found that children from zip codes with a high Area Deprivation Index demonstrate blunted recruitment of striatum (dorsal and ventral nuclei) and pallidum during reward anticipation. In fact, blunted dorsal striatal recruitment during reward anticipation mediated the association between Area Deprivation Index and increased attention problems. These data reveal a candidate mechanism driving elevated risk for psychopathology in children from socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Imaging the socially-anxious brain: recent advances and future prospects

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is serious psychiatric condition with a genetic background. Insight into the neurobiological alterations underlying the disorder is essential to develop effective interventions that could relieve SAD-related suffering. In this expert review, we consider recent neuroimaging work on SAD. First, we focus on new results from magnetic resonance imaging studies dedicated to outlining biomarkers of SAD, including encouraging findings with respect to structural and functional brain alterations associated with the disorder. Furthermore, we highlight innovative studies in the field of neuroprediction and studies that established the effects of treatment on brain characteristics. Next, we describe novel work aimed to delineate endophenotypes of SAD, providing insight into the genetic susceptibility to develop the disorder. Finally, we outline outstanding questions and point out directions for future research.

Social anxiety and age are associated with neural response to social evaluation during adolescence

Adolescence is a sensitive period for the development of adaptive social behaviors and social anxiety, possibly due to aspects of brain development. However, research is needed to examine interactions among age, social anxiety, and social dynamics previously shown to influence neural responding. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examines brain function in 8-18 year-olds with varying levels of social anxiety. Interactions are examined among age, social anxiety, and two key task factors: valence and predictability of social interactions. Results demonstrate age, social anxiety severity, and each of the two key task-based factors interact to predict neural response in the caudate, middle and superior temporal gyri. In particular, among adolescents less-than 13 years of age, higher social anxiety predicted greater responding to unpredictable negative evaluations. However, in this same age group, the opposite pattern emerged during receipt of unpredictable positive evaluations, with less neural response in more anxious youth. Adolescents aged 13 and older overall showed less robust effects. We discuss these findings in terms of age- and anxiety-related differences in socioemotional processing.

Pediatric Loss-of-Control Eating and Anxiety in Relation to Components of Metabolic Syndrome

Objective

Pediatric loss-of-control (LOC) eating is associated with, and predictive of, gains in adiposity and adverse metabolic outcomes. In addition, some preliminary data suggest that anxiety may exacerbate the relationship of LOC eating with weight and metabolic syndrome (MetS)-related measures. We therefore examined whether anxiety moderated the relationship between LOC eating and body mass index z (BMIz), adiposity, and MetS-related measures in youth.

Methods

A convenience sample of non-treatment-seeking boys and girls of varying weight strata were interviewed to determine the presence of LOC eating and completed a questionnaire assessing trait anxiety. BMIz and MetS-related measures (blood pressure, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glucose, and insulin) were measured after an overnight fast. Adiposity was assessed by air displacement plethysmography or dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Analyses adjusted for age, sex, race, height, fat mass, and depressive symptoms, as appropriate.

Results

In all, 379 youths (13.0 ± 2.8 years; 53% female; BMIz = 0.8 ± 1.1; 22% with LOC eating) were studied. Anxiety was not significantly related to BMIz, adiposity, or MetS-related measures. However, anxiety and LOC eating interacted such that only among youth with LOC eating, anxiety was positively associated with fasting insulin (p = .02) and insulin resistance (p = .01). The interaction of anxiety and LOC eating was not significantly related to BMIz, adiposity, or any other MetS-related measure (ps = ns).

Conclusions

Only among non-treatment-seeking youth with LOC eating, anxiety may be associated with increased insulin secretion and insulin resistance. Longitudinal studies are required to confirm these findings and explore mechanisms for these relationships.

Factors that Predict Infant Temperament: A Jordanian Study

PURPOSE

The purpose of the study was to test the association between infant temperament and factors such as socioeconomic status, infant age, breastfeeding, and marital satisfaction.

DESIGN AND METHODS

A cross-sectional design was used to collect data from 278 Arabic speaking Jordanian women with infants in their first year of life from three health centers in Irbid, Jordan. The temperament of the infant was assessed using the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ), a 20-item tool where the mothers were asked to provide a rating of infant behavior on a 5-point scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25.

RESULTS

Descriptive statistics were used to summarize characteristics of the participants. Multiple regressions showed a significant model of factors that correlate to infant temperament (F = 2.930, p = .01); having assistance to care for the infant (B = 3.058, p = .019), marital satisfaction (B = -0.127, p = .049), and infant feeding method (B = 0.147, p = .016) were the only significant predictors for infant temperament.

CONCLUSION

Marital satisfaction, feeding method, and assistance in caring for the infant are factors that predict infant temperament. Moreover, some aspects of these factors are modifiable.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Nurses should be aware of the factors that are associated with infant temperament so that they can teach the family, 'teachers' in daycare centers, and the public about potential moderators of infant temperament.

Attention to Peer Feedback Through the Eyes of Adolescents with a History of Anxiety and Healthy Adolescents

During adolescence, youth may experience heightened attention bias to socially relevant stimuli; however, it is unclear if attention bias toward social threat may be exacerbated for adolescents with a history of anxiety. This study evaluated attentional bias during the Chatroom-Interact task with 25 adolescents with a history of anxiety (18F, Mage = 13.6) and 22 healthy adolescents (13F, Mage = 13.8). In this task, participants received feedback from fictional, virtual peers who either chose them (acceptance) or rejected them (rejection). Overall, participants were faster to orient toward and spent longer time dwelling on their own picture after both rejection and acceptance compared to non-feedback cues. Social feedback was associated with greater pupillary reactivity, an index of cognitive and emotional neural processing, compared to non-feedback cues. During acceptance feedback (but not during rejection feedback), anxious youth displayed greater pupil response compared to healthy youth, suggesting that positive feedback from peers may differentially influence youth with a history of an anxiety disorder.

Early childhood social reticence and neural response to peers in preadolescence predict social anxiety symptoms in midadolescence

BACKGROUND

Early childhood social reticence (SR) and preadolescent social anxiety (SA) symptoms increase the risk for more severe SA in later adolescence. Yet, not all at-risk youth develop more severe SA. The emergence of distinct patterns of neural response to socially evocative contexts during pivotal points in development may help explain this discontinuity. We tested the extent to which brain function during social interactions in preadolescence influenced the effects of SA and early childhood SR on predicting SA symptoms in midadolescence.

METHODS

Participants (N = 53) were assessed for SR from ages 2 to 7. At age 11, SA symptoms were assessed and brain function was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as participants anticipated social evaluation from purported peers with a reputation for being unpredictable, nice, and mean. At age 13, SA symptoms were re-assessed. Moderated-mediation models tested the extent to which early childhood SR, preadolescent SA, and preadolescent brain function predicted midadolescent SA.

RESULTS

In individuals with preadolescent SA, the presence of early childhood SR and SR-linked differences in brain activation predicted more severe SA in midadolescence. Specifically, in those who exhibited preadolescent SA, greater early childhood SR was associated with enhanced bilateral insula engagement while anticipating unpredictable-versus-nice social evaluation in preadolescence, and more severe SA in midadolescence.

CONCLUSIONS

SR-linked neural responses to socially evocative peer interactions may predict more severe SA symptoms in midadolescence among individuals with greater preadolescent SA symptoms and childhood SR. This same pattern of neural response may not be associated with more severe SA symptoms in youth with only one risk factor.

Connecting Childhood Wariness to Adolescent Social Anxiety through the Brain and Peer Experiences

Wariness in early childhood manifests as shy, inhibited behavior in novel social situations and is associated with increased risk for developing social anxiety. In youth with childhood wariness, exposure to a potent social stressor, such as peer victimization, may potentiate brain-based sensitivity to unpredictable social contexts, thereby increasing risk for developing social anxiety. To test brain-based associations between early childhood wariness, self-reported peer victimization, and current social anxiety symptoms, we quantified neural responses to different social contexts in low- and high-victimized pre-adolescents with varying levels of early childhood wariness. Measures of early childhood wariness were obtained annually from ages 2-to-7-years. At age 11, participants were characterized as having low (N = 20) or high (N = 27) peer victimization. To index their neural responses to peer evaluation, participants completed an fMRI-based Virtual School paradigm (Jarcho et al. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 13, 21-31, 2013a). In highly victimized, relative to low-victimized participants, wariness was differentially related to right amygdala response based on the valence and predictability of peer evaluation. More specifically, in highly victimized participants, wariness was associated with greater right amygdala response to unpredictably positive peer evaluation. Effects of wariness were not observed in participants who reported low levels of victimization. Moreover, in victimized participants, high wariness and right amygdala response to unpredictably positive peer evaluation was associated with more severe social anxiety symptoms. Results can be interpreted using a diathesis-stress model, which suggests that neural response to unexpectedly positive social feedback is a mechanism by which exposure to peer victimization potentiates the risk for developing social anxiety in individuals exhibiting high levels of early childhood wariness.

Suggestibility is associated with alcohol self-administration, subjective alcohol effects, and self-reported drinking behavior

BACKGROUND

Suggestibility, defined as an individual's inclination to accept and internalize messages, has not been studied in relation to alcohol use. Peer conformity, a component of suggestibility, may be related to alcohol use, as peer groups show similarities in patterns of alcohol use. Few studies have assessed how suggestibility and peer conformity relate to alcohol self-administration or to reinforcing effects of alcohol.

AIMS

This study assessed whether suggestibility and peer conformity were associated with drinking behavior, alcohol self-administration, subjective response to alcohol, and drinking motives and expectancies.

METHODS

Study 1 participants were alcohol drinkers (n=20), who completed a laboratory study of free-access intravenous alcohol self-administration. Study 2 participants were adolescents and young adults, age 14-25 (n=150), with lifetime alcohol use. Participants completed surveys of suggestibility and drinking patterns (Study 1 and 2), subjective alcohol effects (Study 1 only), and alcohol motives and expectancies (Study 2 only).

RESULTS/OUTCOMES

In Study 1, participants with higher levels of suggestiblity self-administered more alcohol, and reported greater subjective alcohol effects. Peer conformity, though correlated with suggestibility, was not related to these measures. In Study 2, participants with higher suggestiblity reported more alcohol consumption, higher drinking motives and alcohol expectancies. Peer conformity was not related to alcohol consumption, but was related to coping and enhancement drinking motives, and all expectancies measures.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION

Results indicate that suggestibility, beyond peer conformity, may be a critical factor to study when examining alcohol consumption behavior, and may provide insight into the development of alcohol use disorder.

Approach, avoidance, and the detection of conflict in the development of behavioral inhibition

Motivation has played an integral role in understanding personality development. Two motivational systems, one associated with seeking reward (approach motivation) and one associated with avoidance of threat (avoidance motivation), have been theorized to represent individual differences in behavioral responses to the environment. However, contextual factors, particularly those with a high degree of novelty, ambiguity, and unpredictability, may simultaneously activate both systems, thereby causing approach-avoidance conflict. The resulting behavior, commonly called inhibition, is characterized by an inability to engage in motivated, goal-directed behavior and is theorized to reflect a core component of anxiety. A form of inhibition observed in childhood, behavioral inhibition (BI), is a relatively stable temperamental profile characterized by negative affect in response to unfamiliar and unpredictable contexts and is a risk factor for anxiety. Our review draws from findings in clinical and cognitive neuroscience to argue that BI reflects an increased sensitivity of both approach and avoidance motivational systems, thereby increasing the likelihood of approach-avoidance conflict within the context of unfamiliar or unpredictable stimuli and environments. Such motivational conflict activates neural systems associated with conflict monitoring, which leads to increases in arousal (e.g., sympathetic nervous system activity) and onlooking behavior, two commonly observed characteristics of childhood BI.

Young children's behavioral and neural responses to peer feedback relate to internalizing problems

Despite the importance of peer experiences during early childhood for socioemotional development, few studies have examined how young children process and respond to peer feedback. The current study used an ecologically valid experimental paradigm to study young children's processing of peer social acceptance or rejection. In this paradigm, 118 children (50% boys; M_age = 72.92 months; SD = 9.30; Range_age = 53.19-98.86 months) sorted pictures of unknown, similar-aged peers into those with whom they wished or did not wish to play. They were later told how these peers sorted them, such that in half of the cases the presumed peer accepted or rejected the participant. When rejected children reported more distress (sadness), they were slower to rate their affective response, and exhibited increased mid-frontal EEG theta power, compared to when accepted. Moreover, we found that children's affective responses and EEG theta power for rejection predicted internalizing problems, especially if they displayed an attention bias to social threat. Our results further validate and illustrate the utility of this paradigm for studying how young children process and respond to peer feedback.

Let's chat: developmental neural bases of social motivation during real-time peer interaction

Humans are motivated to interact with each other, but the neural bases of social motivation have been predominantly examined in non-interactive contexts. Understanding real-world social motivation is of special importance during middle childhood (ages 8-12), a period when social skills improve, social networks grow, and social brain networks specialize. To assess interactive social motivation, the current study used a novel fMRI paradigm in which children believed they were chatting with a peer. The design targeted two phases of interaction: (1) Initiation, in which children engaged in a social bid via sharing a like or hobby, and (2) Reply, in which children received either an engaged ("Me too") or non-engaged ("I'm away") reply from the peer. On control trials, children were told that their answers were not shared and that they would receive either engaged ("Matched") or non-engaged ("Disconnected") replies from the computer. Results indicated that during Initiation and Reply, key components of reward circuitry (e.g., ventral striatum) were more active for the peer than the computer trials. In addition, during Reply, social cognitive regions were more activated by the peer, and this social cognitive specialization increased with age. Finally, the effect of engagement type on reward circuitry activation was larger for social than non-social trials, indicating developmental sensitivity to social contingency. These findings demonstrate that both reward and social cognitive brain systems support real-time social interaction in middle childhood. An interactive approach to understanding social reward has implications for clinical disorders, where social motivation is more affected in real-world contexts.

Cortical Functional Connectivity Evident After Birth and Behavioral Inhibition at Age 2

OBJECTIVE

The infant temperament behavioral inhibition is a potent risk factor for development of an anxiety disorder. It is difficult to predict risk for behavioral inhibition at birth, however, and the neural underpinnings are poorly understood. The authors hypothesized that neonatal functional connectivity of the ventral attention network is related to behavioral inhibition at age 2 years beyond sociodemographic and familial factors. This hypothesis is supported by the ventral attention network's role in attention to novelty, a key feature of behavioral inhibition.

METHOD

Using a longitudinal design (N=45), the authors measured functional connectivity using MRI in neonates and behavioral inhibition at age 2 using the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment. Whole-brain connectivity maps were computed for regions from the ventral attention, default mode, and salience networks. Regression analyses related these maps to behavioral inhibition at age 2, covarying for sex, social risk, and motion during scanning.

RESULTS

Decreased neonatal functional connectivity of three connections was associated with increased behavioral inhibition at age 2. One connection (between the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the right temporal-parietal junction) included the ventral attention network seed, and two connections (between the medial prefrontal cortex and both the right superior parietal lobule and the left lateral occipital cortex) included the default mode network seed.

CONCLUSIONS

Neonatal functional connectivity of the ventral attention and default mode networks is associated with behavioral inhibition at age 2. These results inform the developmental neurobiology of behavioral inhibition and anxiety disorders and may aid in early risk assessment and intervention.

Shyness and Trajectories of Functional Network Connectivity Over Early Adolescence

High shyness during early adolescence is associated with impaired peer relationships and risk for psychiatric disorders. Little is known, however, about the relation between shyness and trajectories of brain development over early adolescence. The current study longitudinally examined trajectories of resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fc) within four brain networks in 147 adolescents. Subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging at three different time points, at average ages 10.5 (range = 7.8-13.0), 11.7 (range = 9.3-14.1), and 12.9 years (range = 10.1-15.2). Multilevel linear modeling indicated that high shyness was associated with a less steep negative slope of default mode network (DMN) rs-fc over early adolescence relative to low shyness. Less steep decreases in DMN rs-fc may relate to increased self-focus in adolescents with high shyness.

Brain activation upon ideal-body media exposure and peer feedback in late adolescent girls

Media's prevailing thin-body ideal plays a vital role in adolescent girls' body image development, but the co-occurring impact of peer feedback is understudied. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test media imagery and peer feedback combinations on neural activity related to thin-body ideals. Twenty-four healthy female late adolescents rated precategorized body sizes of bikini models (too thin or normal), directly followed by ostensible peer feedback (too thin or normal). Consistent with prior studies on social feedback processing, results showed increased brain activity in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC)/anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and bilateral insula in incongruent situations: when participants rated media models' body size as normal while peer feedback indicated the models as too thin (or vice versa). This effect was stronger for girls with lower self-esteem. A subsequent behavioral study (N = 34 female late adolescents, separate sample) demonstrated that participants changed behavior in the direction of the peer feedback: precategorized normal sized models were rated as too thin more often after receiving too thin peer feedback. This suggests that the neural responses upon peer feedback may influence subsequent choice. Our results show that media-by-peer interactions have pronounced effects on girls' body ideals.

Differences in neural response to extinction recall in young adults with or without history of behavioral inhibition

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament identified in early childhood that is associated with risk for anxiety disorders, yet only about half of behaviorally inhibited children manifest anxiety later in life. We compared brain function and behavior during extinction recall in a sample of nonanxious young adults characterized in childhood with BI (n = 22) or with no BI (n = 28). Three weeks after undergoing fear conditioning and extinction, participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging extinction recall task assessing memory and threat differentiation for conditioned stimuli. While self-report and psychophysiological measures of differential conditioning and extinction were similar across groups, BI-related differences in brain function emerged during extinction recall. Childhood BI was associated with greater activation in subgenual anterior cingulate cortex in response to cues signaling safety. This pattern of results may reflect neural correlates that promote resilience against anxiety in a temperamentally at-risk population.

Neural Correlates of Social Influence Among Cannabis Users

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Although peer influence is an important factor in the initiation and maintenance of cannabis use, few studies have investigated the neural correlates of peer influence among cannabis users. The current review summarizes research on the neuroscience of social influence in cannabis users, with the goal of highlighting gaps in the literature and the need for future research.

RECENT FINDINGS

Brain regions underlying peer influence may function differently in cannabis users. Compared to non-using controls, regions of the brain underlying reward, such as the striatum, show greater connectivity with frontal regions, and also show hyperactivity when participants are presented with peer information. Other subcortical regions, such as the insula, show hypoactivation during social exclusion in cannabis users, indicating that neural responses to peer interactions may be altered in cannabis users.

SUMMARY

Although neuroscience is increasingly being used to study social behavior, few studies have specifically focused on cannabis use, and therefore it is difficult to draw conclusions about social mechanisms that may differentiate cannabis users and controls. This area of research may be a promising avenue in which to explore a critical factor underlying cannabis use and addiction.

Four Mechanistic Models of Peer Influence on Adolescent Cannabis Use

Purpose of review

Most adolescents begin exploring cannabis in peer contexts, but the neural mechanisms that underlie peer influence on adolescent cannabis use are still unknown. This theoretical overview elucidates the intersecting roles of neural function and peer factors in cannabis use in adolescents.

Recent findings

Novel paradigms using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in adolescents have identified distinct neural mechanisms of risk decision-making and incentive processing in peer contexts, centered on reward-motivation and affect regulatory neural networks; these findings inform a theoretical model of peer-driven cannabis use decisions in adolescents.

Summary

We propose four "mechanistic profiles" of social facilitation of cannabis use in adolescents: (1) peer influence as the primary driver of use; (2) cannabis exploration as the primary driver, which may be enhanced in peer contexts; (3) social anxiety; and (4) negative peer experiences. Identification of "neural targets" involved in motivating cannabis use may inform clinicians about which treatment strategies work best in adolescents with cannabis use problems, and via which social and neurocognitive processes.

Neural mechanisms of sensitivity to peer information in young adult cannabis users

Though social influence is a critical factor in the initiation and maintenance of marijuana use, the neural correlates of influence in those who use marijuana are unknown. In this study, marijuana-using young adults (MJ; n = 20) and controls (CON; n = 23) performed a decision-making task in which they made a perceptual choice after viewing the choices of unknown peers via photographs, while they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. The MJ and CON groups did not show differences in the overall number of choices that agreed with versus opposed group influence, but only the MJ group showed reaction time slowing when deciding against group choices. Longer reaction times were associated with greater activation of frontal regions. The MJ goup, compared to CON, showed significantly greater activation in the caudate when presented with peer information. Across groups, caudate activation was associated with self-reported susceptibility to influence. These findings indicate that young adults who use MJ may exhibit increased effort when confronted with opposing peer influence, as well as exhibit greater responsivity of the caudate to social information. These results not only better define the neural basis of social decisions, but also suggest that marijuana use is associated with exaggerated neural activity during decision making that involves social information.

The neurobiology of the emotional adolescent: From the inside out

Adolescents are commonly portrayed as highly emotional, with their behaviors often hijacked by their emotions. Research on the neural substrates of adolescent affective behavior is beginning to paint a more nuanced picture of how neurodevelopmental changes in brain function influence affective behavior, and how these influences are modulated by external factors in the environment. Recent neurodevelopmental models suggest that the brain is designed to promote emotion regulation, learning, and affiliation across development, and that affective behavior reciprocally interacts with age-specific social demands and different social contexts. In this review, we discuss current findings on neurobiological mechanisms of adolescents' affective behavior and highlight individual differences in and social-contextual influences on adolescents' emotionality. Neurobiological mechanisms of affective processes related to anxiety and depression are also discussed as examples. As the field progresses, it will be critical to test new hypotheses generated from the foundational empirical and conceptual work and to focus on identifying more precisely how and when neural networks change in ways that promote or thwart adaptive affective behavior during adolescence.

ALTERED TOPOGRAPHY OF INTRINSIC FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY IN CHILDHOOD RISK FOR SOCIAL ANXIETY

BACKGROUND

Extreme shyness in childhood arising from behavioral inhibition (BI) is among the strongest risk factors for developing social anxiety. Although no imaging studies of intrinsic brain networks in children with BI have been reported, adults with a history of BI exhibit altered functioning of frontolimbic circuits and enhanced processing of salient, personally relevant information. BI in childhood may be marked by increased coupling of salience (insula) and default (ventromedial prefrontal cortex [vmPFC]) network hubs.

METHODS

We tested this potential relation in 42 children ages 9-12, oversampled for high BI. Participants provided resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. A novel topographical pattern analysis of salience network intrinsic functional connectivity was conducted, and the impact of salience-default coupling on the relation between BI and social anxiety symptoms was assessed via moderation analysis.

RESULTS

Children with high BI exhibit altered salience network topography, marked by reduced insula connectivity to dorsal anterior cingulate and increased insula connectivity to vmPFC. Whole-brain analyses revealed increased connectivity of salience, executive, and sensory networks with default network hubs in children higher in BI. Finally, the relation between insula-ventromedial prefrontal connectivity and social anxiety symptoms was strongest among the children highest in BI.

CONCLUSIONS

BI is associated with an increase in connectivity to default network hubs that may bias processing toward personally relevant information during development. These altered patterns of connectivity point to potential biomarkers of the neural profile of risk for anxiety in childhood.

Altered Prefrontal Cortex Function Marks Heightened Anxiety Risk in Children

OBJECTIVE

Anxiety disorders are prevalent and cause substantial disability. An important risk factor for anxiety disorders is inhibited temperament, the tendency to be shy and to avoid new situations. Inhibited adults have heightened amygdala activation and less flexible engagement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC); however, it remains unknown whether these brain alterations are present in inhibited children before the onset of anxiety disorders.

METHOD

A total of 37 children (18 inhibited and 19 uninhibited), 8 to 10 years of age, completed a task testing anticipation and viewing of threat stimuli and social stimuli in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Brain activation and functional connectivity were measured.

RESULTS

During the anticipation of threat stimuli, inhibited children failed to show the robust PFC engagement observed in the uninhibited children. In contrast, when viewing social stimuli, inhibited children had increased medial PFC and dorsolateral PFC activation. Connectivity analyses revealed a pattern of reduced connectivity between prefrontal and limbic regions and among distinct PFC regions in the inhibited group. The medial PFC emerged as a key hub of the altered PFC circuitry in inhibited children.

CONCLUSION

This study provides new evidence of a neural signature of vulnerability to anxiety disorders. By investigating both anticipation and response to images, we identified that high-risk, inhibited children have widespread alterations in PFC function and connectivity, characterized by an inability to proactively prepare for social threat combined with heightened reactivity to social stimuli. Thus, children at high risk for anxiety show significantly altered prefrontal cortical function and connectivity before the onset of anxiety disorders.

The development of social cognition in adolescence: An integrated perspective

Social cognitive processes are critical in navigating complex social interactions and are associated with a network of brain areas termed the 'social brain'. Here, we describe the development of social cognition, and the structural and functional changes in the social brain during adolescence, a period of life characterised by extensive changes in social behaviour and environments. Neuroimaging and behavioural studies have demonstrated that the social brain and social cognition undergo significant development in human adolescence. Development of social cognition and the social brain are discussed in the context of developments in other neural systems, such as those implicated in motivational-affective and cognitive control processes. Successful transition to adulthood requires the rapid refinement and integration of these processes and many adolescent-typical behaviours, such as peer influence and sensitivity to social exclusion, involve dynamic interactions between these systems. Considering these interactions, and how they vary between individuals and across development, could increase our understanding of adolescent brain and behavioural development.

Adolescent neurobiological susceptibility to social context

Adolescence has been characterized as a period of heightened sensitivity to social contexts. However, adolescents vary in how their social contexts affect them. According to neurobiological susceptibility models, endogenous, biological factors confer some individuals, relative to others, with greater susceptibility to environmental influences, whereby more susceptible individuals fare the best or worst of all individuals, depending on the environment encountered (e.g., high vs. low parental warmth). Until recently, research guided by these theoretical frameworks has not incorporated direct measures of brain structure or function to index this sensitivity. Drawing on prevailing models of adolescent neurodevelopment and a growing number of neuroimaging studies on the interrelations among social contexts, the brain, and developmental outcomes, we review research that supports the idea of adolescent neurobiological susceptibility to social context for understanding why and how adolescents differ in development and well-being. We propose that adolescent development is shaped by brain-based individual differences in sensitivity to social contexts - be they positive or negative - such as those created through relationships with parents/caregivers and peers. Ultimately, we recommend that future research measure brain function and structure to operationalize susceptibility factors that moderate the influence of social contexts on developmental outcomes.

Early-Childhood Social Reticence Predicts Brain Function in Preadolescent Youths During Distinct Forms of Peer Evaluation

Social reticence is expressed as shy, anxiously avoidant behavior in early childhood. With development, overt signs of social reticence may diminish but could still manifest themselves in neural responses to peers. We obtained measures of social reticence across 2 to 7 years of age. At age 11, preadolescents previously characterized as high (n = 30) or low (n = 23) in social reticence completed a novel functional-MRI-based peer-interaction task that quantifies neural responses to the anticipation and receipt of distinct forms of social evaluation. High (but not low) social reticence in early childhood predicted greater activity in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and left and right insula, brain regions implicated in processing salience and distress, when participants anticipated unpredictable compared with predictable feedback. High social reticence was also associated with negative functional connectivity between insula and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region commonly implicated in affect regulation. Finally, among participants with high social reticence, negative evaluation was associated with increased amygdala activity, but only during feedback from unpredictable peers.

Variable activation in striatal subregions across components of a social influence task in young adult cannabis users

INTRODUCTION

Decades of research have demonstrated the importance of social influence in initiation and maintenance of drug use, but little is known about neural mechanisms underlying social influence in young adults who use recreational drugs.

METHODS

To better understand whether the neural and/or behavioral response to social influence differs in young adults using illicit drugs, 20 marijuana-using young adults (MJ) aged 18-25, and 20 controls (CON) performed a decision-making task in the context of social influence, while they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. A priori analyses focused on the nucleus accumbens (NAc), with post hoc analyses in the rest of the striatum. In this task, participants could choose to either follow or go against group influence.

RESULTS

When subjects applied social information to response choice selection (independent of following or going against group influence), we observed activation in the middle striatum (caudate), in the MJ group only, that extended ventrally into the NAc. MJ users but not CON showed greater activation in the NAc but not the caudate while making choices congruent with group influence as opposed to choices going against group influence. Activation in the NAc when following social influence was associated with amount of drug use reported. In contrast, during the feedback phase of the task we observed significant NAc activation in both MJ and CON, along with dorsal caudate activation only in MJ participants. This NAc activation did not correlate with drug use.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that MJ users, but not CON, show differential brain activation across striatal subregions when applying social information to make a decision, following versus going against a group of peers, or receiving positive feedback. The current work suggests that differential neural sensitivity to social influence in regions such as the striatum may contribute to the development and/or maintenance of marijuana use.

Early Childhood Behavioral Inhibition Predicts Cortical Thickness in Adulthood

OBJECTIVE

Behavioral inhibition (BI) during early childhood predicts risk for anxiety disorders and altered cognitive control in adolescence. Although BI has been linked to variation in brain function through adulthood, few studies have examined relations between early childhood BI and adult brain structure.

METHOD

The relation between early childhood BI and cortical thickness in adulthood was examined in a cohort of individuals followed since early childhood (N = 53, mean age 20.5 years). Analyses tested whether anxiety and/or cognitive control during adolescence moderated relations between BI and cortical thickness. Cognitive control was measured with the Eriksen Flanker Task. Initial analyses examined cortical thickness in regions of interest previously implicated in BI, anxiety disorders, and cognitive control: dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC), anterior insula (aI), and subgenual anterior cingulate (sgACC); and volumes of the amygdala and hippocampus. Exploratory analyses examined relations across the prefrontal cortex.

RESULTS

BI during early childhood related to thinner dACC in adulthood. Neither anxiety nor cognitive control moderated this relation. A stronger congruency effect on the Eriksen Flanker Task during adolescence independently related to thinner dACC in adulthood. Higher anxiety during adolescence related to thicker cortex in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) in adulthood among those with low BI as children.

CONCLUSION

Temperament in early childhood and the interaction between temperament and later anxiety relate to adult brain structure. These results are consistent with prior work associating BI and anxiety with functional brain variability in the dACC and VLPFC.

Frontolimbic functioning during threat-related attention: Relations to early behavioral inhibition and anxiety in children

Children with behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperament characterized by biologically-based hyper-vigilance to novelty, display threat-related attention biases (AB) that shape developmental trajectories of risk for anxiety. Here we explore the relations between BI, neural function, and anxiety. Fifty-six 9-12-year-olds (23 behaviorally inhibited) performed the dot-probe task while undergoing fMRI. AB scores were not associated with BI group or parent-rated anxiety symptoms. Trials requiring attention orienting away from threat engaged an executive and threat-attention network (dlPFC, vlPFC, mPFC, and amygdala). Within that network, behaviorally inhibited children showed greater activation in the right dlPFC. Heightened dlPFC activation related to increased anxiety, and BI levels accounted for the direct relation between dlPFC activation and anxiety. Behaviorally inhibited children may engage the executive attention system during threat-related processing as a compensatory mechanism. We provide preliminary evidence that the link between PFC functioning and anxiety might be attributed to early-emerging temperamental vulnerabilities present before the emergence of clinical anxiety.