Adolescents' emotional competence is associated with parents' neural sensitivity to emotions

Family and parenting factors are associated with emotion regulation neural function in early adolescent girls with elevated internalizing symptoms

A prominent tripartite model proposes that parent role modeling of emotion regulation, emotion socialization behaviors, and the emotional climate of the family are important for young people's emotional development. However, limited research has examined the neural mechanisms at play. Here, we examined the associations between family and parenting factors, the neural correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation, and internalizing symptoms in early adolescent girls. Sixty-four female adolescents aged 10-12 years with elevated internalizing symptoms completed emotional reactivity, implicit (affect labeling) and explicit (cognitive reappraisal) emotion regulation tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Positive family emotional climate was associated with greater activation in the anterior cingulate and middle temporal cortices during emotional reactivity. Maternal emotion regulation difficulties were associated with increased frontal pole and supramarginal gyrus activation during affect labeling, whereas supportive maternal emotion socialization and positive family emotional climate were associated with activation in prefrontal regions, including inferior frontal and superior frontal gyri, respectively, during cognitive reappraisal. No mediating effects of brain function were observed in the associations between family/parenting factors and adolescent symptoms. These findings highlight the role of family and parenting behaviors in adolescent emotion regulation neurobiology, and contribute to prominent models of adolescent emotional development.

Language access differentially alters functional connectivity during emotion perception across cultures

Introduction

It is often assumed that the ability to recognize the emotions of others is reflexive and automatic, driven only by observable facial muscle configurations. However, research suggests that accumulated emotion concept knowledge shapes the way people perceive the emotional meaning of others' facial muscle movements. Cultural upbringing can shape an individual's concept knowledge, such as expectations about which facial muscle configurations convey anger, disgust, or sadness. Additionally, growing evidence suggests that access to emotion category words, such as "anger," facilitates access to such emotion concept knowledge and in turn facilitates emotion perception.

Methods

To investigate the impact of cultural influence and emotion concept accessibility on emotion perception, participants from two cultural groups (Chinese and White Americans) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning session to assess functional connectivity between brain regions during emotion perception. Across four blocks, participants were primed with either English emotion category words ("anger," "disgust") or control text (XXXXXX) before viewing images of White American actors posing facial muscle configurations that are stereotypical of anger and disgust in the United States.

Results

We found that when primed with "disgust" versus control text prior to seeing disgusted facial expressions, Chinese participants showed a significant decrease in functional connectivity between a region associated with semantic retrieval (the inferior frontal gyrus) and regions associated with semantic processing, visual perception, and social cognition. Priming the word "anger" did not impact functional connectivity for Chinese participants relative to control text, and priming neither "disgust" nor "anger" impacted functional connectivity for White American participants.

Discussion

These findings provide preliminary evidence that emotion concept accessibility differentially impacts perception based on participants' cultural background.

Adolescent social media use: cultivating and constraining competence

According to self-determination theory competence is a basic psychological need that is crucial for wellbeing. Social contexts strongly influence whether competence is supported or thwarted. Given that social media is a pervasive social context within adolescents' lives, it can play a crucial role in competence development. Three qualitative methods were used to investigate mid-adolescents' perspectives of how their social media use impacts competence. Participants included 36 students aged 15 years from four Australian schools. All participants completed a rich picture mapping activity and focus group discussions. A sub-sample of 11 students participated in follow-up interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis generated two overarching themes. The first theme cultivating competence includes sub-themes; enhancing social competencies, mastery experiences and goal accomplishment, and social media expertise. The second theme constraining competence includes sub-themes; ineffectance within the social media environment, interfering with sleep, and hindering learning. Findings demonstrated that social media contributes to today's adolescents encountering unique experiences with regards to competence development. Furthermore, adolescents' interactions on social media have broad implications for competence within online and offline realms. This study identifies aspects of social media use that can be targeted to help adolescents engage with social media in ways that cultivate rather than constrain competence.

Responding to racism at school: Ethnic-racial socialization and the academic engagement of Black and Latinx youth

Guided by the Theory of Racial Socialization in Action (TRSA; Smith-Bynum in press), this study examined observed caregiver-provided ethnic-racial socialization in response to a school-based discriminatory dilemma. Forty-five Black and 36 Latinx caregivers (88% mothers) with low-income and their children (Mage  = 11.09, SD = 0.29; 46.3% female) participated in Dallas, Texas from 2018 to 2019. Dyads responded to a hypothetical scenario in which a school counselor makes a discriminatory comment to the child. Results of a factor mixture analysis suggested that caregivers engaged in the dialogue using one of four approaches: Low-engaged, Legacy, Racial Literacy, or High-engaged. Profiles were found to differ significantly by the race/ethnicity and language of caregivers and were associated with youth's concurrent behavioral engagement (R2  = .04).

Family, friends, and feelings: the role of relationships to parents and peers and alexithymia in adolescents with anorexia nervosa

BACKGROUND

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with impairments in socio-emotional functioning, including difficulties in interpersonal relationships as well as alexithymia (difficulties identifying and describing one's emotions). Although the onset of the disorder is mostly in adolescence, a developmental period in which interpersonal relationships to parents as well as peers undergo major changes, only few studies have investigated the quality of interpersonal relationships in adolescent AN patients. Furthermore, the mechanisms linking poor relationship quality to eating disorder psychopathology are not yet clarified, albeit some research suggests that alexithymia might play a pivotal role. The aims of the present study were investigating the quality of interpersonal relationships to parents and peers in adolescents with AN compared to healthy adolescents as well as exploring the mediating role of alexithymia in the association between relationship quality and eating disorder symptoms.

METHODS

Self-report questionnaires were used to assess relationship quality (Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment) and alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale) in 12-18 year old female adolescents with AN (n = 35) in comparison to healthy adolescents (n = 40).

RESULTS

Adolescents with AN reported lower relationship quality to both of their parents and to peers compared to healthy controls. Relationship quality scores were negatively correlated to alexithymia as well as eating disorder symptoms. Alexithymia fully meditated the association between eating disorder symptoms and relationship quality to parents and partially mediated the association between eating disorder symptoms and relationship quality to peers.

CONCLUSION

The results indicate difficulties in interpersonal relationships among adolescents with AN and emphasize the role of peer relationships for adolescents' eating disorder psychopathology. Alexithymia seems to play an important role in explaining the link between quality of relationships and eating disorder psychopathology. Results suggest that treatment should not only focus on family relationships but also address relationships to peers as well as adolescents' competence in identifying and dealing with their emotions.

The Effects of a Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma

Early adversity and trauma can have profound effects on children's affective development and mental health outcomes. Interventions that improve mental health and socioemotional development are essential to mitigate these effects. We conducted a pilot study examining whether a reading-based program (We Love Reading) improves emotion recognition and mental health through socialization in Syrian refugee (n = 49) and Jordanian non-refugee children (n = 45) aged 7-12 years old (M = 8.9, 57% girls) living in Jordan. To measure emotion recognition, children classified the expression in faces morphed between two emotions (happy-sad and fear-anger), while mental health was assessed using survey measures of optimism, depression, anxiety, distress, and insecurity. Prior to the intervention, both groups of children were significantly biased to interpret ambiguous facial expressions as sad, while there was no clear bias on the fear-anger spectrum. Following the intervention, we found changes in Syrian refugee children's bias in emotion recognition away from sad facial expressions, although this returned to pre-intervention levels 2 months after the end of the program. This shift in the bias away from sad facial expressions was not associated with changes in self-reported mental health symptoms. These results suggest a potential positive role of the reading intervention on affective development, but further research is required to determine the longer-term impacts of the program.

Maternal Antecedents to Adolescent Girls' Neural Regulation of Emotion

The purpose of this study was to investigate contributions of maternal emotional resources to individual differences in adolescents' functional connectivity during emotion regulation. Participants included 35 adolescent girls who completed an implicit emotion regulation task during fMRI. Mothers reported on the quality of their adult attachment and emotional awareness when youth were in elementary school. Higher anxious attachment and lower emotional awareness were significantly correlated with more positive amygdala-right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex connectivity, a pattern linked in prior research with ineffective emotion regulation and emotional difficulties. Further, there was an indirect effect of anxious attachment on adolescent connectivity through emotional awareness. These results suggest that compromised maternal emotional resources in childhood may be linked to atypical neural processing of emotions.

A family-centered prevention ameliorates the associations of low self-control during childhood with employment income and poverty status in young African American adults

OBJECTIVE

Children with low self-control who grow up in poverty are at elevated risk for living in poverty when they are adults. The purpose of this study was to further understanding of the intergenerational continuity of poverty by (a) examining the likelihood that children with low levels of self-control at age 11 earn less employment income and are more likely to live in poverty 14 years later, at age 25; and (b) determining, via a preventive intervention, whether enhancing supportive parenting during childhood will ameliorate these associations.

METHODS

Parents and their 11-year-old children from 381 families participated in the Strong African American Families (SAAF) program or a control condition. Teachers assessed children's self-control at 11 years; parents reported their use of supportive parenting when children were 11 and 13 years; emerging adults provided data on cognitive and emotional self-control at 19, 20, and 21 years; and young adults indicated their employment income at 25 years.

RESULTS

Significant two-way interactions were detected between children's self-control and prevention condition for employment income (b = -183.18, 95% CI [-363.82, -2.53], p < .05) and poverty status (b = 0.257, 95% CI [0.018, 0.497], p < .05). Low self-control at age 11 forecast less employment income and a greater likelihood of living in poverty among children in the control condition, but not among low self-control SAAF participants. Mediated moderation analyses confirmed that enhanced supportive parenting accounted for SAAF's effects on employment income (indirect effect = 63.057, 95% BCA [19.385, 124.748]) and poverty status (indirect effect = -0.071, 95% BCA [-0.165, -0.016]).

CONCLUSIONS

This study is unique in using a randomized controlled trial to show that preventive interventions designed to enhance parenting and strengthen families can buffer the long-term economic consequences of low self-control.

Maternal Buffering of Adolescent Dysregulation in Socially Appetitive Contexts: From Behavior to the Brain

Adolescents are more susceptible to dysregulation in positive social contexts, compared to children. We investigated whether maternal presence would buffer these effects in adolescence. Fifty-four adolescents and children (age range = 8-17 years, Mage  = 13.38 years) completed a social go-nogo task during an fMRI scan alone and in the presence of their mother. We found age-related patterns, such that older relative to younger youth displayed more disinhibition toward socially appetitive than socially aversive stimuli, which was buffered by maternal presence. Furthermore, with age, maternal buffering in socially appetitive contexts elicited heightened activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex connectivity. Findings underscore the importance of caregivers in promoting the neural regulation of their offspring during adolescence.

Maternal Neurobiological Processing of Negative Adolescent Stimuli: Relations With Positive Parenting and Relationship Quality

We examined associations between maternal affective neurobiology and positive parenting in a study of 20 mothers of adolescents. Mothers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during an emotion image task, rated parent-adolescent relationship quality, and completed an adolescent interaction task in which positive parenting behaviors were observed. Maternal structure was associated with lower responsivity in emotional processing regions in the general negative image contrast and was related to greater dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation to negative adolescent images. Parent-adolescent relationship quality was associated with lower precuneus activation to negative adolescent images. Findings are among the first to connect functional brain processing with observed parenting behaviors for parents of adolescent children, and underscore the relative importance of affective processing in parenting older children.

Parental influences on neural mechanisms underlying emotion regulation

Emotional intelligence allows for the recognition and regulation of emotions in the self and others, making it critical for healthy social and emotional development. Research has shown that the parent-child relationship and family environment are influential in the development of emotion regulation, one key component of emotional intelligence. However, the neurobiological processes underlying this relationship have yet to be fully explored. This review examines perspectives from several disciplines to further understand the influence of parent-child interactions on the neurocircuitry shaping emotion regulation. Our proposed model demonstrates how parent-child interactions and parents' emotion regulation neurocircuitry may influence the development of children's own emotion regulation neurocircuitry, with a specific focus on associations among prefrontal regions, the anterior insula, and the amygdala.

Gender Differences in Large-Scale and Small-Scale Spatial Ability: A Systematic Review Based on Behavioral and Neuroimaging Research

Background: As we human beings are living in a multidimensional space all the time. Therefore, spatial ability is vital for the survival and development of individuals. However, males and females show gender differences in this ability. So, are these gender differences influenced by the scale type of spatial ability? It's not well specified. Therefore, to tackle this issue, we conducted the current research from the behavioral and neural level. Methods: Study 1 used the general meta-analysis method to explore whether individuals display the same gender differences in large- and small-scale spatial ability. Study 2 used the method of Activation Likelihood Estimation to identify the commonalities and distinctions of the brain activity between males and females on large- and small-scale spatial ability. Results: Study 1 showed that in behavior performance, males outperformed females in both large-scale and small-scale spatial ability, but the effect size of the gender difference in large-scale spatial ability is significantly greater than that in small-scale spatial ability. In addition, Study 2 showed that in terms of neural activity, males and females exhibited both similarities and differences no matter in large-scale or small-scale spatial ability. Especially, the contrast analysis between females and males demonstrated a stronger activation in the brain regions of bilateral lentiform nucleus and bilateral parahippocampal gyrus in large-scale spatial ability, and correspondence in right sub-gyral, right precuneus, and left middle frontal gyrus in small-scale spatial ability. Conclusions: The results indicated that the reason why females performed not so well in large-scale spatial ability was that they were more susceptible to emotions and their parahippocampal gyrus worked less efficiently than males; females performed not so well in small-scale spatial ability because they mostly adopted the egocentric strategy and their sub-gyral also worked less efficiently than males. The two different reasons have made for gender differences in favor of males in terms of spatial ability and such gender differences have different manifestations in large-scale and small-scale spatial ability. Possible implications of the results for understanding the issue of gender differences in spatial ability are discussed.

The Protective Effects of Supportive Parenting on the Relationship Between Adolescent Poverty and Resting-State Functional Brain Connectivity During Adulthood

Children growing up in poverty are vulnerable to negative changes in the developing brain; however, these outcomes vary widely. We tested the hypothesis that receipt of supportive parenting would offset the association between living in poverty during adolescence and the connectivity of neural networks that support cognition and emotion regulation during young adulthood. In a sample of African American youths (N = 119) living in the rural South, poverty status and receipt of supportive parenting were assessed when youths were 11 to 13 and 16 to 18 years old. At age 25, resting-state functional connectivity of the central-executive and emotion-regulation neural networks was assessed using functional MRI. The results revealed that more years spent living in poverty presaged less connectivity in both neural networks among young adults who received low levels of supportive parenting but not among those who received high levels of such parenting.

Shared and Distinct Neural Bases of Large- and Small-Scale Spatial Ability: A Coordinate-Based Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis

Background: Spatial ability is vital for human survival and development. However, the relationship between large-scale and small-scale spatial ability remains poorly understood. To address this issue from a novel perspective, we performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies to determine the shared and distinct neural bases of these two forms of spatial ability. Methods: We searched Web of Science, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar for studies regarding "spatial ability" published within the last 20 years (January 1988 through June 2018). A final total of 103 studies (Table 1) involving 2,085 participants (male = 1,116) and 2,586 foci were incorporated into the meta-analysis. Results: Large-scale spatial ability was associated with activation in the limbic lobe, posterior lobe, occipital lobe, parietal lobe, right anterior lobe, frontal lobe, and right sub-lobar area. Small-scale spatial ability was associated with activation in the parietal lobe, occipital lobe, frontal lobe, right posterior lobe, and left sub-lobar area. Furthermore, conjunction analysis revealed overlapping regions in the sub-gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, right superior parietal lobule, right middle occipital gyrus, right superior occipital gyrus, left inferior occipital gyrus, and precuneus. The contrast analysis demonstrated that the parahippocampal gyrus, left lingual gyrus, culmen, right middle temporal gyrus, left declive, left superior occipital gyrus, and right lentiform nucleus were more strongly activated during large-scale spatial tasks. In contrast, the precuneus, right inferior frontal gyrus, right precentral gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, left supramarginal gyrus, left superior parietal lobule, right inferior occipital gyrus, and left middle frontal gyrus were more strongly activated during small-scale spatial tasks. Our results further indicated that there is no absolute difference in the cognitive strategies associated with the two forms of spatial ability (egocentric/allocentric). Conclusion: The results of the present study verify and expand upon the theoretical model of spatial ability proposed by Hegarty et al. Our analysis revealed a shared neural basis between large- and small-scale spatial abilities, as well as specific yet independent neural bases underlying each. Based on these findings, we proposed a more comprehensive version of the behavioral model.

Long-lasting effects of family-related factors on adults' ability to recognise brief facial expressions of emotion

This study investigated whether adults' ability to attribute emotions to brief facial expressions (microexpressions) is associated with family-related environmental factors (FrFs) such as one's number of siblings (Experiment 1), attachment style (Experiment 2), or perceived parental authority style (Experiment 3). Participants' accuracy and reaction time (RT) to the recognition of anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness to facial microexpressions (exposure: 100 ms) were measured with a six-alternative forced choice computerised method (6AFC). The attachment style and the authority style of the participants' parents were accessed using questionnaires. The findings revealed that up to 13% of the variance in participants' responses could be explained by FrFs, with modest to moderate effect sizes. Microexpressions linked to signs of hostility or threat (i.e., contempt and fear) were decoded faster and/or more accurately by adults with few or no siblings or with a fearful attachment. Conversely, participants who recalled their fathers as authoritarian were worse at recognising contempt and fear than participants who perceived them as permissive or authoritative. The findings suggest that early FrFs may still be involved in the fine-tuning of responses to signs of contextual danger when the time for cognitive processing of facial expressions is severely restricted.

Prefrontal Cortical Response to Negative Social Words Links Social Risk to Depressive Symptoms in Adolescence

Research suggests that altered emotion processing may be one important pathway linking social risk factors and depressive symptoms. We examined the extent to which neural response to negatively valenced social information might help to account for the relationship between social risk and depressive symptoms in youth. Forty-nine youth were scanned while identifying the emotional valence of words that connoted social status. They also completed questionnaires assessing self-reported social risk factors and depressive symptoms. Mediation analysis revealed that reduced dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity in response to negative social status words explained the positive association between social risk and depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that social risk factors present during adolescence may contribute to depressive symptoms by influencing the neural substrates of emotion processing.

Associations Between Parent Emotional Arousal and Regulation and Adolescents' Affective Brain Response

Parents' emotional functioning represents a central mechanism in the caregiving environment's influence on adolescent affective brain function. However, a paucity of research has examined links between parental emotional arousal and regulation and adolescents' affective brain function. Thus, the present study examined associations between parents' self-rated negative emotion, parent emotion regulation difficulties, and adolescent brain responsivity to negative and positive emotional stimuli. Participants included 64 12-14 year-old adolescents (31 females) and their female primary caregivers. Adolescents viewed negative, positive, and neutral emotional stimuli during an fMRI scanning session. Region of interest analyses showed that higher parent negative emotion was related to adolescents' greater ACC and vmPFC response to both negatively- and positively-valenced emotional stimuli; whereas, parent negative emotion was related to adolescents' greater amygdala response to negative emotional stimuli only. Furthermore, parent emotion regulation moderated the association between parent negative emotion and adolescents' brain response to negative emotional stimuli, such that parents with high negative emotion and high emotion regulation difficulties had adolescents with the greatest affective brain response. Findings highlight the importance of considering both parent emotional arousal and regulation in understanding the family affective environment and its relation to adolescent emotion-related brain development.

Families that fire together smile together: Resting state connectome similarity and daily emotional synchrony in parent-child dyads

Despite emerging evidence suggesting a biological basis to our social tiles, our understanding of the neural processes which link two minds is unknown. We implemented a novel approach, which included connectome similarity analysis using resting state intrinsic networks of parent-child dyads as well as daily diaries measured across 14 days. Intrinsic resting-state networks for both parents and their adolescent child were identified using independent component analysis (ICA). Results indicate that parents and children who had more similar RSN connectome also had more similar day-to-day emotional synchrony. Furthermore, dyadic RSN connectome similarity was associated with children's emotional competence, suggesting that being neurally in-tune with their parents confers emotional benefits. We provide the first evidence that dyadic RSN similarity is associated with emotional synchrony in what is often our first and most essential social bond, the parent-child relationship.

Neurodevelopmental changes across adolescence in viewing and labeling dynamic peer emotions

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Dynamic peer facial stimuli recruit key regions involved in emotion processing.

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LPFC shows a nonlinear age trend across adolescence to labeling dynamic peer faces.

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MOFC/vMPFC shows a linear decrease with age to viewing dynamic peer faces.

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No significant age trends were observed in amygdala during viewing or labeling dynamic peer faces.

Adolescence is a sensitive period of social-affective development, characterized by biological, neurological, and social changes. The field currently conceptualizes these changes in terms of an imbalance between systems supporting reactivity and regulation, specifically nonlinear changes in reactivity networks and linear changes in regulatory networks. Previous research suggests that the labeling or reappraisal of emotion increases activity in lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), and decreases activity in amygdala relative to passive viewing of affective stimuli. However, past work in this area has relied heavily on paradigms using static, adult faces, as well as explicit regulation. In the current study, we assessed cross-sectional trends in neural responses to viewing and labeling dynamic peer emotional expressions in adolescent girls 10–23 years old. Our dynamic adolescent stimuli set reliably and robustly recruited key brain regions involved in emotion reactivity (medial orbital frontal cortex/ventral medial prefrontal cortex; MOFC/vMPFC, bilateral amygdala) and regulation (bilateral dorsal and ventral LPFC). However, contrary to the age-trends predicted by the dominant models in studies of risk/reward, the LPFC showed a nonlinear age trend across adolescence to labeling dynamic peer faces, whereas the MOFC/vMPFC showed a linear decrease with age to viewing dynamic peer faces. There were no significant age trends observed in the amygdala.

Alexithymia and psychopathological symptoms in adolescent outpatients and mothers suffering from migraines: a case control study

BACKGROUND

Headache is a common disorder affecting a growing number of children and adolescents. In recent years, there has been an increase in scientific interest in exploring the relationship between migraine and emotional regulation, and in particular, the impact of emotional dysregulation on mental and physical health. The present study aims to explore the relationship between migraine and alexithymia among adolescents and their mothers as well as the impact of this association on mental health. An additional aim is to verify whether alexithymia may be a predictor of psychopathological symptoms in adolescents and mothers with migraines.

METHODS

A total of 212 subjects were involved in this study. The sample was divided into (a) Experimental Group (EG) consisting of 106 subjects (53 adolescents and 53 mothers) with a diagnosis of migraine according to International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-3) and (b) Control Group (CG) including 106 subjects (53 adolescents and 53 mothers) without a diagnosis of migraine. All participants completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale to assess alexithymia and the Symptom Checklist-90-R to assess psychopathological symptoms.

RESULTS

Higher rates of alexithymia were found in the adolescents and mothers of the EG in comparison to the adolescents and mothers of the CG. Furthermore, adolescents and mothers experiencing both migraine and alexithymia, demonstrated a higher risk of psychopathology.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this study provide evidence that the co-occurrence of migraine and alexithymia increases the risk of psychopathology for both adolescents and their mothers.

Adolescent neurodevelopment of cognitive control and risk-taking in negative family contexts

Adolescents have an increased need to regulate their behavior as they gain access to opportunities for risky behavior; however, cognitive control systems necessary for this regulation remain relatively immature. Parents can impact their adolescent child's abilities to regulate their behavior and engagement in risk taking. Since adolescents undergo significant neural change, negative parent-child relationship quality may impede or alter development in prefrontal regions subserving cognitive control. To test this hypothesis, 20 adolescents completed a Go/NoGo task during two fMRI scans occurring 1year apart. Adolescents reporting greater family conflict and lower family cohesion showed longitudinal increases in risk-taking behavior, which was mediated by longitudinal increases in left VLPFC activation during cognitive control. These results underscore the importance of parent-child relationships during early adolescence, and the neural processes by which cognitive control may be derailed and may lead to increased risk taking.

Neural correlates of adolescents' viewing of parents' and peers' emotions: Associations with risk-taking behavior and risky peer affiliations

Social reorientation from parents to same-age peers is normative in adolescence, but the neural correlates of youths' socioemotional processing of parents and peers have not been explored. In the current study, 22 adolescents (average age 16.98) underwent neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging) while viewing and rating emotions shown in brief video clips featuring themselves, their parents, or an unfamiliar peer. Viewing self vs. other and parents vs. the peer activated regions in the medial prefrontal cortex, replicating prior findings that this area responds to self-relevant stimuli, including familiar and not just similar others. Viewing the peer compared with parents elicited activation in posterior 'mentalizing' structures, the precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus and right temporoparietal junction, as well as the ventral striatum and bilateral amygdala and hippocampus. Relative activations in the PCC and precuneus to the peer vs. the parent were related both to reported risk-taking behavior and to affiliations with more risk-taking peers. The results suggest neural correlates of the adolescent social reorientation toward peers and away from parents that may be associated with adolescents' real-life risk-taking behaviors and social relationships.