Sharing and giving across adolescence: an experimental study examining the development of prosocial behavior

A shifting role of thalamocortical connectivity in the emergence of cortical functional organization

The cortical patterning principle has been a long-standing question in neuroscience, yet how this translates to macroscale functional specialization in the human brain remains largely unknown. Here we examine age-dependent differences in resting-state thalamocortical connectivity to investigate its role in the emergence of large-scale functional networks during early life, using a primarily cross-sectional but also longitudinal approach. We show that thalamocortical connectivity during infancy reflects an early differentiation of sensorimotor networks and genetically influenced axonal projection. This pattern changes in childhood, when connectivity is established with the salience network, while decoupling externally and internally oriented functional systems. A developmental simulation using generative network models corroborated these findings, demonstrating that thalamic connectivity contributes to developing key features of the mature brain, such as functional segregation and the sensory-association axis, especially across 12-18 years of age. Our study suggests that the thalamus plays an important role in functional specialization during development, with potential implications for studying conditions with compromised internal and external processing.

Factors of children's allocation behavior: peer relationship and resource quantity as the main determinants

This study investigated the resource allocation of Chinese sixth-graders and the role of peer relationship in different resource conditions (N = 132, Mage = 11. 35 years, SD = 0.60). We designed the resource quantity as a between-group variable, with one group participating in a resource-limited experiment and another group in a resource-abundant experiment. Both groups of children allocated token resources to three types of peers relationships: good friends, disliked individuals, and strangers. Based on our experimental hypotheses, we presupposed three experimental outcomes: selfish allocation, equal allocation, and altruistic allocation. To analyze the data, we employed multivariate unordered regression analysis and performed two rounds of regression analyses using both selfish and altruistic allocations as reference categories to enhance the statistical power of regression model. Our results reveal that the resource quantity had a significant hindering effect on children's allocation behaviors, as the amount of available resources for allocation increased, so did their willingness to allocate selfishly. It was also found that an increase in resources led to a decrease in the proportion of children allocating equally. Nonetheless, the results still revealed generalized peer relationship preferences: children tended to allocate more resources to friends than to individuals they disliked. But when faced with disliked individuals, they were relatively more likely to allocate equally. Finally, we observed the proportion of equal allocation and discussed the similar impact of inequality aversion, different allocation contexts, and children's theory of mind on equitable allocation among sixth-graders.

Adolescents' trust and reciprocity toward friends, unknown peers, and community members

Using a newly developed version of the Trust Game among 196 adolescents aged 11-20 years, this study examined whether adolescents distinguish between trust and reciprocity to unknown peers, friends, and community members. We also tested for effects of age, gender, and individual differences in attending to others' emotions, emotional support to friends, societal contributions, and institutional and interpersonal trust beliefs. Results indicated that adolescents showed the least trust and reciprocity to unknown peers, more to a community member, and most to friends. Reciprocity increased with age, and individual differences in societal contributions and interpersonal trust were positively related to trust and reciprocity. This study was the first to show that community members are a specific target in adolescents' social world.

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Trust to Friends, Community Members, and Unknown Peers in Adolescence

Trust plays an important role during adolescence for developing social relations. Although prior developmental studies give us insight into adolescents' development of differentiation between close (e.g., friends) and unknown (e.g., unknown peers) targets in trust choices, less is known about the development of trust to societal targets (e.g., members of a community organization) and its underlying neural mechanisms. Using a modified version of the Trust Game, our preregistered fMRI study examined the underlying neural mechanisms of trust to close (friend), societal (community member), and unknown others (unknown peer) during adolescence in 106 participants (aged 12-23 years). Adolescents showed most trust to friends, less trust to community members, and the least trust to unknown peers. Neural results show that target differentiation in adolescents' trust behavior is associated with activity in social brain regions implicated during mentalizing, reward processing, and cognitive control. Recruitment of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and OFC was higher for closer targets (i.e., friend and community member). For the mPFC, this effect was most pronounced during no trust choices. Trust to friends was additionally associated with increased activity in the precuneus and bilateral temporal parietal junction. In contrast, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex were most active for trust to unknown peers. The mPFC showed increased activity with age and consistent relations with individual differences in feeling needed/useful.

Longitudinal neural and behavioral trajectories of charity contributions across adolescence

This study examined the development of prosocial charity donations and neural activity in the ventral striatum when gaining rewards for self and for charity. Participants 10-22 years (95% European heritage) participated in three annual behavioral-fMRI waves (T1: n = 160, T2: n = 167, T3: n = 175). Behaviorally, donations to charity as measured with an economic Dictator Game increased with age. Perspective taking also increased with age. In contrast, self-gain and charity-gain enjoyment decreased with age. Ventral striatum activity was higher for rewards for self than for charity, but this difference decreased during adolescence. Latent growth curve models revealed that higher donations were associated with a smaller difference between ventral striatum activation for self and charity. These findings show longitudinal brain-donations associations in adolescence.

Perceived parenting styles, cognitive flexibility, and prosocial behavior in Chinese Youth with an immigrant background: A three-group comparison

Previous research has revealed cross-cultural differences in parenting styles and in how these may relate to adolescents’ prosocial behavior. Nevertheless, little is known about the role of cognitive flexibility – a key component of executive function –and the immigration context in these associations. Using a person-centered approach, the current study aimed to (1) explore perceived parenting profiles among Chinese immigrant-origin youth in Italy in comparison to their nonimmigrant ethnic majority peers in the country of origin (China) and in the country of destination (Italy), and (2) examine the moderating role of cognitive flexibility in the expected parenting-prosocial behavior link in the three cultural groups. Participants (N = 444; M (Age) = 11.88 years; SD = 1.08; 50.7% girls; 27.4% Chinese immigrant-origin, 35.4% Chinese ethnic majority; 37.2% Italian ethnic majority) completed a parenting questionnaire and a computerized cognitive flexibility task, while teachers rated their prosocial behavior. Latent profile analysis revealed three perceived parenting styles: “harsh” (15.8%), “supportive” (40.5%), and “strict-affectionate” (43.7%). Chinese immigrant-origin, Italian ethnic majority, and Chinese ethnic majority youths were overrepresented in each of these profiles, respectively. In regression analyses, the association between parenting profiles and prosocial behavior varied as a function of adolescents’ cognitive flexibility and cultural group. Specifically, cognitive flexibility strengthened the supportive parenting-prosocial behavior link for Chinese immigrant-origin youth, and buffered against the detrimental effect of harsh parenting on prosocial behavior for their Italian ethnic majority peers. Findings emphasize the influence of cultural and immigration-related factors on adolescents’ perceived parenting styles, and provide further evidence for the beneficial role of cognitive flexibility in the positive adjustment of youth with and without an immigrant background.

Understanding the Dynamics of the Developing Adolescent Brain Through Team Science

One of the major goals for research on adolescent development is to identify the optimal conditions for adolescents to grow up in a complex social world and to understand individual differences in these trajectories. Based on influential theoretical and empirical work in this field, achieving this goal requires a detailed understanding of the social context in which neural and behavioral development takes place, along with longitudinal measurements at multiple levels (e.g., genetic, hormonal, neural, behavioral). In this perspectives article, we highlight the promising role of team science in achieving this goal. To illustrate our point, we describe meso (peer relations) and micro (social learning) approaches to understand social development in adolescence as crucial aspects of adolescent mental health. Finally, we provide an overview of how our team has extended our collaborations beyond scientific partners to multiple societal partners for the purpose of informing and including policymakers, education and health professionals, as well as adolescents themselves when conducting and communicating research.

Social Trust and Reciprocity Among Adolescent Girls Exposed to Interpersonal Violence

Trauma research has traditionally focused on altered emotion regulation and its role in psychopathology, whereas mechanisms of social behavior remain comparatively unexplored, particularly among adolescents. It has been previously reported that adolescents with histories of interpersonal violence (IV) demonstrate disrupted social learning, and the degree to which they are impaired during social interactions requiring trustful behaviors may be associated with their levels of anxiety. In the present study, 52 adolescent females (n = 26 control; n = 26 IV-exposed) between ages of 11 and 17 completed a multi-round adaptation of the Trust Game in which they interacted with a confederate peer run by a computer program, alternating between the roles of investor and investee. The task was designed to operationalize the social behaviors of trust and trust reciprocity, where the magnitude of the participants' monetary investment in the confederate during the investor role represented trust while the proportion of investment returned to the confederate in the investee role represented trust reciprocity. IV-exposed and control participants did not differ in trust (i.e., as investors); however, IV-exposed participants without anxiety diagnoses demonstrated lower trust than those with anxiety diagnoses. For trust reciprocity (i.e., as investees), there were again no differences between IV-exposed participants and controls; however, IV-exposed participants with anxiety diagnoses had increased trust reciprocity compared with both other groups. Similarly, caregiver-reported anxiety symptoms were associated with trust reciprocity behaviors among the IV-exposed adolescents. Findings suggest that IV exposure and associated anxiety impacts adolescents' trust behaviors, demonstrating potential mechanisms for maladaptive social behavior among trauma-exposed youth.

I'm not a little kid anymore! Reciprocal social influence in child-adult interaction

Human decisions are often influenced by others' opinions. This process is regulated by social norms: for instance, we tend to reciprocate the consideration received from others, independently of their reliability as information sources. Nonetheless, no study to date has investigated whether and how reciprocity modulates social influence in child-adult interaction. We tested 6-, 8- and 10-year-old children in a novel joint perceptual task. A child and an adult experimenter made perceptual estimates and then took turns in making a final decision, choosing between their own and partner's response. We manipulated the final choices of the adult partner, who in one condition chose often the child's estimates, whereas in another condition tended to confirm her own response. Results reveal that 10-year-old children reciprocated the consideration received from the partner, increasing their level of conformity to the adult's judgements when the partner had shown high consideration towards them. At the same time, 10-year-old children employed more elaborate decision criteria in choosing when trusting the adult partner compared to younger children and did not show egocentric biases in their final decisions. Our results shed light on the development of the cognitive and normative mechanisms modulating reciprocal social influence in child-adult interaction.

Peer Relationships and College Students' Cooperative Tendencies: Roles of Interpersonal Trust and Social Value Orientation

The current study investigated the relationship between peer relationships and cooperative tendencies in college students, and explored the mediating role of interpersonal trust and the moderating role of social value orientation in that relationship. A questionnaire was distributed to 406 college students, and the results showed that: (1) peer relationships significantly positively predicted cooperative tendencies; (2) interpersonal trust partially mediated the relationship between peer relationships and cooperative tendencies; and (3) social value orientation moderated the relationship between peer relationships and cooperative tendencies. In particular, prosocial college students were more susceptible to peer relationships than pro-self college students. The findings of the current study indicated that college students with good peer relationships and prosocial value orientation are more likely to show the willingness to cooperate.

Developmental asymmetries in learning to adjust to cooperative and uncooperative environments

Learning to successfully navigate social environments is a critical developmental goal, predictive of long-term wellbeing. However, little is known about how people learn to adjust to different social environments, and how this behaviour emerges across development. Here, we use a series of economic games to assess how children, adolescents, and young adults learn to adjust to social environments that differ in their level of cooperation (i.e., trust and coordination). Our results show an asymmetric developmental pattern: adjustment requiring uncooperative behaviour remains constant across adolescence, but adjustment requiring cooperative behaviour improves markedly across adolescence. Behavioural and computational analyses reveal that age-related differences in this social learning are shaped by age-related differences in the degree of inequality aversion and in the updating of beliefs about others. Our findings point to early adolescence as a phase of rapid change in cooperative behaviours, and highlight this as a key developmental window for interventions promoting well-adjusted social behaviour.

A daily diary study on adolescents' mood, empathy, and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

Adolescence is a formative phase for social development. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated regulations have led to many changes in adolescents' lives, including limited opportunities for social interactions. The current exploratory study investigated the effect of the first weeks of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on Dutch adolescents' (N = 53 with attrition, N = 36 without attrition) mood, empathy, and prosocial behavior. Longitudinal analyses comparing pre-pandemic measures to a three-week peri-pandemic daily diary study showed (i) decreases in empathic concern, opportunities for prosocial actions, and tension, (ii) stable levels of social value orientation, altruism, and dire prosociality, and (iii) increased levels of perspective-taking and vigor during the first weeks of lockdown. Second, this study investigated peri-pandemic effects of familiarity, need, and deservedness on giving behavior. To this end, we utilized novel hypothetical Dictator Games with ecologically valid targets associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescents showed higher levels of giving to a friend (a familiar other, about 51% of the total share), a doctor in a hospital (deserving target, 78%), and individuals with COVID-19 or a poor immune system (targets in need, 69 and 63%, respectively) compared to an unfamiliar peer (39%) This suggests that during the pandemic need and deservedness had a greater influence on adolescent giving than familiarity. Overall, this study demonstrates detrimental effects of the first weeks of lockdown on adolescents' empathic concern and opportunities for prosocial actions, which are important predictors of healthy socio-emotional development. However, adolescents also showed marked resilience and a willingness to benefit others as a result of the lockdown, as evidenced by improved perspective-taking and mood, and high sensitivity to need and deservedness in giving to others.

Neural and behavioral signatures of social evaluation and adaptation in childhood and adolescence: The Leiden consortium on individual development (L-CID)

The transition period between early childhood and late adolescence is characterized by pronounced changes in social competence, or the capacity for flexible social adaptation. Here, we propose that two processes, self-control and prosociality, are crucial for social adaptation following social evaluation. We present a neurobehavioral model showing commonalities in neural responses to experiences of social acceptance and rejection, and multiple pathways for responding to social context. The Leiden Consortium on Individual Development (L-CID) provides a comprehensive approach towards understanding the longitudinal developmental pathways of, and social enrichment effects on, social competence, taking into account potential differential effects of such enrichment. Using Neurosynth based brain maps we point towards the medial prefrontal cortex as an important region integrating social cognition, self-referential processing and self-control for learning to respond flexibly to changing social contexts. Based on their role in social evaluation processing, we suggest to examine medial prefrontal cortex connections with lateral prefrontal cortex and the ventral striatum as potential neural differential susceptibility markers, in addition to previously established markers of differential susceptibility.

Neural reward-related reactions to monetary gains for self and charity

The aim of the present study was to examine the neural signatures of gaining money for self and charity. Young adults (N = 31, 21-24 years of age) underwent fMRI scanning while they performed a task in which they could earn money for themselves and for a self-chosen charity by selecting one of two options with unknown outcomes. The results showed elevated activity in the ventral striatum when gaining for the self only and for self and charity, but not when gaining for charity only. However, increased ventral striatal activity when gaining for charity only was correlated with participants' self-reported empathic concern and enjoyment when winning for charity. Empathic concern was also related to donating a larger proportion of earnings to charity after the MRI session. In short, these results reveal robust ventral striatal activity when gaining for oneself, but empathy-dependent individual differences in ventral striatal activity when gaining for charity.

Genetic and environmental influences on structure of the social brain in childhood

Prosocial behavior and empathy are important aspects of developing social relations in childhood. Prior studies showed protracted structural development of social brain regions associated with prosocial behavior. However, it remains unknown how structure of the social brain is influenced by genetic or environmental factors, and whether overlapping heritability factors explain covariance in structure of the social brain and behavior. The current study examined this hypothesis in a twin sample (aged 7–9-year; N = 512). Bilateral measures of surface area and cortical thickness of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), and precuneus were analyzed. Results showed genetic contributions to surface area and cortical thickness for all brain regions. We found additional shared environmental influences for TPJ, suggesting that this region might be relatively more sensitive to social experiences. Genetic factors also influenced parent-reported prosocial behavior (A = 45%) and empathy (A = 59%). We provided initial evidence that the precuneus shares genetically determined variance with empathy, suggesting a possible small genetic overlap (9%) in brain structure and empathy. These findings show that structure of the social brain and empathy are driven by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, with some factors overlapping for brain structure and behavior.

Familiarity and Audience Effects on Giving: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Giving is often characterized by the conflicting decision to give up something of value to benefit others. Recent evidence indicated that giving is highly context-dependent. To unravel the neural correlates of social context, in this study, young adults (n = 32) performed a novel giving fMRI paradigm, in which they divided coins between self and known (friends) or unknown (unfamiliar) others. A second manipulation included presence of others; giving decisions were made with an audience or anonymously. Results showed that participants gave more coins to a friend than to an unfamiliar other and generally gave more in the presence of an audience. On a neural level, medial prefrontal cortex and the right insula were most active for relatively generous decisions. These findings possibly reflect that aversion of norm deviation or fairness concerns drive differences in the frequency of giving. Next, activation in separate subregions of the TPJ-IPL (i.e., a region that comprises the TPJ and inferior parietal lobule) was found for target and audience contexts. Overall, our findings suggest that donation size and social contextual information are processed in separable brain regions and that TPJ-IPL plays an important role in balancing self- and other-oriented motives related to the social context.

Longitudinal changes in DLPFC activation during childhood are related to decreased aggression following social rejection

Regulating aggression after social feedback is an important prerequisite for developing and maintaining social relations, especially in the current times with larger emphasis on online social evaluation. Studies in adults highlighted the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in regulating aggression. Little is known about the development of aggression regulation following social feedback during childhood, while this is an important period for both brain maturation and social relations. The current study used a longitudinal design, with 456 twins undergoing two functional MRI sessions across the transition from middle (7 to 9 y) to late (9 to 11 y) childhood. Aggression regulation was studied using the Social Network Aggression Task. Behavioral aggression after social evaluation decreased over time, whereas activation in the insula, dorsomedial PFC and DLPFC increased over time. Brain-behavior analyses showed that increased DLPFC activation after negative feedback was associated with decreased aggression. Change analyses further revealed that children with larger increases in DLPFC activity from middle to late childhood showed stronger decreases in aggression over time. These findings provide insights into the development of social evaluation sensitivity and aggression control in childhood.

Intra-individual associations between intentional self-regulation and prosocial behavior during adolescence: Evidence for bidirectionality

INTRODUCTION

Couched in Positive Youth Development (PYD) theory and relevant empirical work, this study investigated bidirectional associations between intentional self-regulation and prosocial behavior toward strangers from age 12 to age 18.

METHOD

Participants included 500 adolescents (52% female, 77% European American; age Time 1 = 12 years, Time 2 = 14 years, Time 3 = 16 years, Time 4 = 18 years) from the Northwestern United States. Adolescents self-reported on their intentional self-regulation and prosocial behavior toward strangers across four time points. A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RICLPM) was estimated in order to assess bidirectionality while avoiding conflating intra- and inter-individual variability.

RESULTS

Results revealed intentional self-regulation and prosocial behavior toward strangers were bidirectionally related during early adolescence (i.e., from age 12 to 14). During mid-to-late adolescence (i.e. age 14 to 18), prosocial behavior toward strangers facilitated intentional selfregulation, whereas intentional self-regulation did not drive the development of prosocial behavior toward strangers.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings indicate that early adolescence may be a particularly plastic developmental period in terms of PYD. Findings also suggest that investigations of relations between adolescents' personal assets and contribution factors merit further scholarly attention. Several directions for future research are presented.

Giving to Friends, Classmates, and Strangers in Adolescence

This study examined how perspective taking and sensitivity to social rewards predict giving to friends, classmates, and strangers in adolescence. Five hundred and twenty adolescents aged 12-17 years completed questionnaires on perspective taking and social rewards and played three Dictator Games in which they divided coins between themselves and a friend, classmate, and stranger. We found that, irrespective of age, adolescents donated most to a friend, less to their classmate, and least to a stranger, and females donated more than males. Individual differences in perspective taking and social reward sensitivity moderated how much adolescents donated, especially to strangers. These findings suggest that perspective taking and sensitivity to social rewards influence giving behavior in adolescence, especially to unknown others.

The neural development of prosocial behavior from childhood to adolescence

The transition from childhood to adolescence is marked by increasingly sophisticated social cognitive abilities that are paralleled by significant functional maturation of the brain. However, the role of social and neurobiological development in facilitating age differences in prosocial behavior remains unclear. Using a cross-sectional sample of children and adolescents (n = 51; 8–16 years), we examined the age-related correlates of prosocial behavior. Youth made costly and non-costly prosocial decisions to anonymous peers during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Among a subsample of youth who made prosocial decisions (n = 35), we found quadratic age differences in neural activation that peaked in early adolescence relative to childhood and older adolescence. In particular, early adolescents showed heightened recruitment of the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), temporal pole and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) when engaging in costly prosocial behavior at the expense of gaining a reward, whereas they evoked heightened pSTS and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex/IFG activation when engaging in costly vs non-costly forms of prosocial behavior. Given that we did not find age differences in prosocial behavior, this suggests that early adolescents show unique patterns of brain activation to inform similar levels of prosocial behavior.

Developmental Changes and Individual Differences in Trust and Reciprocity in Adolescence

A Trust Game was used to examine trust and reciprocity development in 12-18-year-old-adolescents (N = 496), as findings have been conflicting and transitions in adolescence remain elusive. Furthermore, this study tested the roles of gender, risk, and individual differences in empathy, impulsivity, and antisocial tendencies in trust and reciprocity. Results indicate stability in trust and a decrease in reciprocity across adolescence, but also show that trust and reciprocity choices were influenced by risk, and that empathy mediated the age-related decrease in reciprocity. Males trusted more than females, but there were no gender differences in reciprocity. These findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences and adolescents' sensitivities to varying contexts in explaining trust and reciprocity development in adolescence.

Age-related differences in neural activation and functional connectivity during the processing of vocal prosody in adolescence

The ability to recognize others' emotions based on vocal emotional prosody follows a protracted developmental trajectory during adolescence. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms supporting this maturation. The current study investigated age-related differences in neural activation during a vocal emotion recognition (ER) task. Listeners aged 8 to 19 years old completed the vocal ER task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The task of categorizing vocal emotional prosody elicited activation primarily in temporal and frontal areas. Age was associated with a) greater activation in regions in the superior, middle, and inferior frontal gyri, b) greater functional connectivity between the left precentral and inferior frontal gyri and regions in the bilateral insula and temporo-parietal junction, and c) greater fractional anisotropy in the superior longitudinal fasciculus, which connects frontal areas to posterior temporo-parietal regions. Many of these age-related differences in brain activation and connectivity were associated with better performance on the ER task. Increased activation in, and connectivity between, areas typically involved in language processing and social cognition may facilitate the development of vocal ER skills in adolescence.

Behavioral and Neural Pathways Supporting the Development of Prosocial and Risk-Taking Behavior Across Adolescence

This study tested the pathways supporting adolescent development of prosocial and rebellious behavior. Self‐report and structural brain development data were obtained in a three‐wave, longitudinal neuroimaging study (8–29 years, N = 210 at Wave 3). First, prosocial and rebellious behavior assessed at Wave 3 were positively correlated. Perspective taking and intention to comfort uniquely predicted prosocial behavior, whereas fun seeking (current levels and longitudinal changes) predicted both prosocial and rebellious behaviors. These changes were accompanied by developmental declines in nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) volumes, but only faster decline of MPFC (faster maturity) related to less rebellious behavior. These findings point toward a possible differential susceptibility marker, fun seeking, as a predictor of both prosocial and rebellious developmental outcomes.

Age and Gender Effects in Sensitivity to Social Rewards in Adolescents and Young Adults

Adolescence is a sensitive period for socio-cultural processing and a vast literature has established that adolescents are exceptionally attuned to the social context. Theoretical accounts posit that the social reward of social interactions plays a large role in adolescent sensitivity to the social context. Yet, to date it is unclear how sensitivity to social reward develops across adolescence and young adulthood and whether there are gender differences. The present cross-sectional study (N = 271 participants, age 11-28 years) examined age and gender effects in self-reported sensitivity to different types of social rewards. In order to achieve this aim, the Dutch Social Reward Questionnaire for Adolescents was validated. Findings revealed that each type of social reward was characterized by distinct age and gender effects. Feeling rewarded by gaining positive attention from others showed a peak in late adolescence, while enjoying positive reciprocal relationships with others showed a linear increase with age. Enjoying cruel behavior toward others decreased with age for girls, while boys showed no changes with age and reported higher levels across ages. Reward from giving others control showed a mid-adolescent dip, while enjoying group interactions did not show any changes with age. Taken together, the results imply that the social reward of social interactions is a nuanced and complex construct, which encompasses multiple components that show unique effects with age and gender. These findings enable us to gain further traction on the ubiquitous effects of the social context on decision-making in adolescent's lives.

Turning a Blind Eye? Punishment of Friends and Unfamiliar Peers After Observed Exclusion in Adolescence

In order to decrease the occurrence of social exclusion in adolescence, we need to better understand how adolescents perceive and behave toward peers involved in exclusion. We examined the role of friendships in treatment of perpetrators and victims of social exclusion. Eighty-nine participants (aged 9-16) observed exclusion of an unfamiliar peer (victim) by their best friend and another unfamiliar peer. Subsequently, participants could give up valuable coins to altruistically punish or help peers. Results showed that participants altruistically compensated victims and punished unfamiliar excluders, but refrained from punishing their friends. Our findings show that friendship with excluders modulates altruistic punishment of peers and provide mechanistic insight into how friendships may influence treatment of peers involved in social exclusion during adolescence.

Incorporating the social context into neurocognitive models of adolescent decision-making: A neuroimaging meta-analysis

Neurobiological models of adolescent decision-making emphasize developmental changes in brain regions involved in affect (e.g., ventral striatum) and cognitive control (e.g., lateral prefrontal cortex). Although social context plays an important role in adolescent decision-making, current models do not discuss brain regions implicated in processing social information (e.g., dorsomedial prefrontal cortex). We conducted a coordinate-based meta-analysis using the Multilevel peak Kernel Density Analysis (MKDA) method to test the hypothesis that brain regions involved in affect, cognitive control, and social information processing support adolescent decision-making in social contexts (N = 21 functional neuroimaging studies; N = 1292 participants). Results indicated that dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus/insula and ventral striatum are consistently associated with adolescent decision-making in social contexts. Activity within these regions was modulated by the type of social context and social actors involved. Findings suggest including brain regions involved in social information processing into models of adolescent decision-making. We propose a 'constructionist' model, which describes psychological processes and corresponding neural networks related to affect, cognitive control, and social information processing.

Corticostriatal connectivity is associated with the reduction of intergroup bias and greater impartial giving in youth

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Youth were more prosocial to in-group than out-group peers (i.e., intergroup bias).

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Prosocial behavior increases with higher reward inequity favoring others’ outcomes.

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VS-pSTS connectivity increased with more inequitable rewards favoring the out-group.

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VS-pSTS connectivity to more inequitable out-group rewards attenuated biased giving.

Although prosocial behavior is preferentially directed toward the in-group across many species, prioritizing the outcomes of both the in- and out-group earlier in development can reduce intergroup biases. The current study examined the role of corticostriatal recruitment and connectivity in buffering the effect of intergroup bias on costly giving behavior during childhood and adolescence, a period when other-oriented preferences and associated brain functions undergo significant change. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, youth (n = 51; 8–16 years) made decisions that could potentially benefit in-group and out-group peers at a cost to themselves. Youth were more prosocial toward in-group relative to out-group peers, but were relatively more prosocial to out-group peers when there was a greater discrepancy between potential rewards for others over oneself (i.e., higher reward inequity). Although they showed no differences in corticostriatal activation, youth evinced greater connectivity between the ventral striatum (VS) and posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) when considering more inequitable prosocial decisions that favored the outcomes of out-group peers, which attenuated intergroup biases in prosocial behavior. We found no age-related differences at the behavioral or neural level, suggesting that in-group preferences already bias prosocial behavior and its neurocognitive processes by late childhood and do not change across adolescence.

Neurometabolic and functional connectivity basis of prosocial behavior in early adolescence

Human prosocial behavior (PB) emerges in childhood and matures during adolescence. Previous task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have reported involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in social cognition in adolescence. However, neurometabolic and functional connectivity (FC) basis of PB in early adolescence remains unclear. Here, we measured GABA levels in the ACC and FC in a subsample (aged 10.5–13.4 years) of a large-scale population-based cohort with MR spectroscopy (MEGA-PRESS) and resting-state fMRI. PB was negatively correlated with GABA levels in the ACC (N = 221), and positively correlated with right ACC-seeded FC with the right precentral gyrus and the bilateral middle and posterior cingulate gyrus (N = 187). Furthermore, GABA concentrations and this FC were negatively correlated, and the FC mediated the association between GABA levels and PB (N = 171). Our results from a minimally biased, large-scale sample provide new insights into the neurometabolic and neurofunctional correlates of prosocial development during early adolescence.

The Need to Contribute During Adolescence

As an intensely social species, humans demonstrate the propensity to contribute to other individuals and groups by providing support, resources, or helping to achieve a shared goal. Accumulating evidence suggests that contribution benefits the givers as well as the receivers. The need to contribute during adolescence, however, has been underappreciated compared with more individually focused psychological or social developmental needs. The need is particularly significant during the teenage years, when children's social world expands and they become increasingly capable of making contributions of consequence. Moreover, contribution can both promote and be a key element of traditionally conceived fundamental needs of the adolescent period such as autonomy, identity, and intimacy. The neural and biological foundations of the adolescent need to contribute, as well as the ways in which social environments meet that need, are discussed. A scientific and practical investment in contribution would synergize with other recent efforts to reframe thinking about the adolescent period, providing potential returns to the field as well as to youths and their communities.

Heritability of neural reactions to social exclusion and prosocial compensation in middle childhood

Experiencing and observing social exclusion and inclusion, as well as prosocial behavior, are important aspects of social relationships in childhood. However, it is currently unknown to what extent these processes and their neural correlates differ in heritability. We investigated influences of genetics and environment on experiencing social exclusion and compensating for social exclusion of others with the Prosocial Cyberball Game using fMRI in a twin sample (aged 7-9; N = 500). Neuroimaging analyses (N = 283) revealed that experiencing possible self-exclusion resulted in activity in inferior frontal gyrus and medial prefrontal cortex, which was influenced by genetics and unique environment. Experiencing self-inclusion was associated with activity in anterior cingulate cortex, insula and striatum, but this was not significantly explained by genetics or shared environment. We found that children show prosocial compensating behavior when observing social exclusion. Prosocial compensating behavior was associated with activity in posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus, and showed unique environmental effects or measurement error at both behavioral and neural level. Together, these findings show that in children neural activation for experiencing possible self-exclusion and self-inclusion, and for displaying prosocial compensating behavior, is accounted for by unique environmental factors and measurement error, with a small genetic effect on possible self-exclusion.

Group decision-making is optimal in adolescence

Group decision-making is required in early life in educational settings and central to a well-functioning society. However, there is little research on group decision-making in adolescence, despite the significant neuro-cognitive changes during this period. Researchers have studied adolescent decision-making in 'static' social contexts, such as risk-taking in the presence of peers, and largely deemed adolescent decision-making 'sub-optimal'. It is not clear whether these findings generalise to more dynamic social contexts, such as the discussions required to reach a group decision. Here we test the optimality of group decision-making at different stages of adolescence. Pairs of male pre-to-early adolescents (8 to 13 years of age) and mid-to-late adolescents (14 to 17 years of age) together performed a low-level, perceptual decision-making task. Whenever their individual decisions differed, they were required to negotiate a joint decision. While there were developmental differences in individual performance, the joint performance of both adolescent groups was at adult levels (data obtained from a previous study). Both adolescent groups achieved a level of joint performance expected under optimal integration of their individual information into a joint decision. Young adolescents' joint, but not individual, performance deteriorated over time. The results are consistent with recent findings attesting to the competencies, rather than the shortcomings, of adolescent social behaviour.

Group decision-making is optimal in adolescence

Group decision-making is required in early life in educational settings and central to a well-functioning society. However, there is little research on group decision-making in adolescence, despite the significant neuro-cognitive changes during this period. Researchers have studied adolescent decision-making in ‘static’ social contexts, such as risk-taking in the presence of peers, and largely deemed adolescent decision-making ‘sub-optimal’. It is not clear whether these findings generalise to more dynamic social contexts, such as the discussions required to reach a group decision. Here we test the optimality of group decision-making at different stages of adolescence. Pairs of male pre-to-early adolescents (8 to 13 years of age) and mid-to-late adolescents (14 to 17 years of age) together performed a low-level, perceptual decision-making task. Whenever their individual decisions differed, they were required to negotiate a joint decision. While there were developmental differences in individual performance, the joint performance of both adolescent groups was at adult levels (data obtained from a previous study). Both adolescent groups achieved a level of joint performance expected under optimal integration of their individual information into a joint decision. Young adolescents’ joint, but not individual, performance deteriorated over time. The results are consistent with recent findings attesting to the competencies, rather than the shortcomings, of adolescent social behaviour.

Parental acceptance-rejection and child prosocial behavior: Developmental transactions across the transition to adolescence in nine countries, mothers and fathers, and girls and boys

Promoting children's prosocial behavior is a goal for parents, healthcare professionals, and nations. Does positive parenting promote later child prosocial behavior, or do children who are more prosocial elicit more positive parenting later, or both? Relations between parenting and prosocial behavior have to date been studied only in a narrow band of countries, mostly with mothers and not fathers, and child gender has infrequently been explored as a moderator of parenting-prosocial relations. This cross-national study uses 1,178 families (mothers, fathers, and children) from 9 countries to explore developmental transactions between parental acceptance-rejection and girls' and boys' prosocial behavior across 3 waves (child ages 9 to 12). Controlling for stability across waves, within-wave relations, and parental age and education, higher parental acceptance predicted increased child prosocial behavior from age 9 to 10 and from age 10 to 12. Higher age 9 child prosocial behavior also predicted increased parental acceptance from age 9 to 10. These transactional paths were invariant across 9 countries, mothers and fathers, and girls and boys. Parental acceptance increases child prosocial behaviors later, but child prosocial behaviors are not effective at increasing parental acceptance in the transition to adolescence. This study identifies widely applicable socialization processes across countries, mothers and fathers, and girls and boys. (PsycINFO Database Record

Examining the intertwined development of prosocial skills and ASD symptoms in adolescence

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and reduced prosocial behaviour are strongly intertwined. However, social interactions with peers may be increasingly practiced over the course of development and may instigate a reduction in ASD symptoms and vice versa. We, therefore, sought to determine if, during adolescence, possible improvements in prosocial behaviours and ASD symptoms may benefit one another over time. Participants were 2773 adolescents from the Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS) cohorts. Measurements took place over three waves (mean ages: 11.1, 13.4, and 16.2 years). Longitudinal associations between teacher-rated classroom prosocial skills and parent-rated ASD symptoms were examined using the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM). In addition to estimating the stable, between-person associations, the dynamical effects between prosocial skills and ASD symptoms over time were estimated at the within-person level. At the between-person level, prosocial skills and ASD symptoms were substantially negatively correlated. At the within-person level, a small and unexpected positive cross-lagged effect from wave 1 ASD symptoms on wave 2 prosocial skills was observed. We added to the existing literature by showing that, in addition to replicating the already firmly established between-person association between low prosocial skills and ASD, within-person gains in prosocial skills do not lead to subsequent reduction of ASD symptoms, and reductions in ASD symptoms do not lead to subsequent enhancement of prosocial skills. We, therefore, conclude from our findings that the inverse association between autistic symptoms and prosocial skills in adolescence is highly stable.

Social perspective taking is associated with self-reported prosocial behavior and regional cortical thickness across adolescence

Basic perspective taking and mentalizing abilities develop in childhood, but recent studies indicate that the use of social perspective taking to guide decisions and actions has a prolonged development that continues throughout adolescence. Here, we aimed to replicate this research and investigate the hypotheses that individual differences in social perspective taking in adolescence are associated with real-life prosocial and antisocial behavior and differences in brain structure. We used an experimental approach and a large cross-sectional sample (n = 293) of participants aged 7–26 years old to assess age-related improvement in social perspective taking usage during performance of a version of the director task. In subsamples, we then tested how individual differences in social perspective taking were related to self-reported prosocial behavior and peer relationship problems on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (n = 184) and to MRI measures of regional cortical thickness and surface area (n = 226). The pattern of results in the director task replicated previous findings by demonstrating continued improvement in use of social perspective taking across adolescence. The study also showed that better social perspective taking usage is associated with more self-reported prosocial behavior, as well as to thinner cerebral cortex in regions in the left hemisphere encompassing parts of the caudal middle frontal and precentral gyri and lateral parietal regions. These associations were observed independently of age and might partly reflect individual developmental variability. The relevance of cortical development was additionally supported by indirect effects of age on social perspective taking usage via cortical thickness.

Cognitive and Affective Perspective-Taking: Evidence for Shared and Dissociable Anatomical Substrates

Perspective-taking refers to the ability to recognize another person's point of view. Crucial to the development of interpersonal relationships and prosocial behavior, perspective-taking is closely linked to human empathy, and like empathy, perspective-taking is commonly subdivided into cognitive and affective components. While the two components of empathy have been frequently compared, the differences between cognitive and affective perspective-taking have been under-investigated in the cognitive neuroscience literature to date. Here, we define cognitive perspective-taking as the ability to infer an agent's thoughts or beliefs, and affective perspective-taking as the ability to infer an agent's feelings or emotions. In this paper, we review data from functional imaging studies in healthy adults as well as behavioral and structural imaging studies in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia in order to determine if there are distinct neural correlates for cognitive and affective perspective-taking. Data suggest that there are both shared and non-shared cognitive and anatomic substrates. For example, while both types of perspective-taking engage regions such as the temporoparietal junction, precuneus, and temporal poles, only affective perspective-taking engages regions within the limbic system and basal ganglia. Differences are also observed in prefrontal cortex: while affective perspective-taking engages ventromedial prefrontal cortex, cognitive perspective-taking engages dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). To corroborate these findings, we also examine if cognitive and affective perspective-taking share the same relationship with executive functions. While it is clear that affective perspective-taking requires emotional substrates that are less prominent in cognitive perspective-taking, it remains unknown to what extent executive functions (including working memory, mental set switching, and inhibitory control) may contribute to each process. Overall results indicate that cognitive perspective-taking is dependent on executive functioning (particularly mental set switching), while affective perspective-taking is less so. We conclude with a critique of the current literature, with a focus on the different outcome measures used across studies and misconceptions due to imprecise terminology, as well as recommendations for future research.

Social network cohesion in school classes promotes prosocial behavior

Adolescence is a key period of social development at the end of which individuals are expected to take on adult social roles. The school class, as the most salient peer group, becomes the prime environment that impacts social development during adolescence. Using social network analyses, we investigated how individual and group level features are related to prosocial behavior and social capital (generalized trust). We mapped the social networks within 22 classrooms of adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years (N = 611), and collected data on social behaviors towards peers. Our results indicate that individuals with high centrality show both higher levels of prosocial behavior and relational aggression. Importantly, greater social cohesion in the classroom was associated with (1) reduced levels of antisocial behavior towards peers and (2) increased generalized trust. These results provide novel insights in the relationship between social structure and social behavior, and stress the importance of the school environment in the development of not only intellectual but also social capital.

Friend versus foe: Neural correlates of prosocial decisions for liked and disliked peers

Although the majority of our social interactions are with people we know, few studies have investigated the neural correlates of sharing valuable resources with familiar others. Using an ecologically valid research paradigm, this functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined the neural correlates of prosocial and selfish behavior in interactions with real-life friends and disliked peers in young adults. Participants (N = 27) distributed coins between themselves and another person, where they could make selfish choices that maximized their own gains or prosocial choices that maximized outcomes of the other. Participants were more prosocial toward friends and more selfish toward disliked peers. Individual prosociality levels toward friends were associated negatively with supplementary motor area and anterior insula activity. Further preliminary analyses showed that prosocial decisions involving friends were associated with heightened activity in the bilateral posterior temporoparietal junction, and selfish decisions involving disliked peers were associated with heightened superior temporal sulcus activity, which are brain regions consistently shown to be involved in mentalizing and perspective taking in prior studies. Further, activation of the putamen was observed during prosocial choices involving friends and selfish choices involving disliked peers. These findings provide insights into the modulation of neural processes that underlie prosocial behavior as a function of a positive or negative relationship with the interaction partner.

Cognitive and Affective Perspective-Taking: Evidence for Shared and Dissociable Anatomical Substrates

Perspective-taking refers to the ability to recognize another person's point of view. Crucial to the development of interpersonal relationships and prosocial behavior, perspective-taking is closely linked to human empathy, and like empathy, perspective-taking is commonly subdivided into cognitive and affective components. While the two components of empathy have been frequently compared, the differences between cognitive and affective perspective-taking have been under-investigated in the cognitive neuroscience literature to date. Here, we define cognitive perspective-taking as the ability to infer an agent's thoughts or beliefs, and affective perspective-taking as the ability to infer an agent's feelings or emotions. In this paper, we review data from functional imaging studies in healthy adults as well as behavioral and structural imaging studies in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia in order to determine if there are distinct neural correlates for cognitive and affective perspective-taking. Data suggest that there are both shared and non-shared cognitive and anatomic substrates. For example, while both types of perspective-taking engage regions such as the temporoparietal junction, precuneus, and temporal poles, only affective perspective-taking engages regions within the limbic system and basal ganglia. Differences are also observed in prefrontal cortex: while affective perspective-taking engages ventromedial prefrontal cortex, cognitive perspective-taking engages dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). To corroborate these findings, we also examine if cognitive and affective perspective-taking share the same relationship with executive functions. While it is clear that affective perspective-taking requires emotional substrates that are less prominent in cognitive perspective-taking, it remains unknown to what extent executive functions (including working memory, mental set switching, and inhibitory control) may contribute to each process. Overall results indicate that cognitive perspective-taking is dependent on executive functioning (particularly mental set switching), while affective perspective-taking is less so. We conclude with a critique of the current literature, with a focus on the different outcome measures used across studies and misconceptions due to imprecise terminology, as well as recommendations for future research.

Neural Reactivity to Emotional Faces May Mediate the Relationship Between Childhood Empathy and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior

Reactivity to others' emotions not only can result in empathic concern (EC), an important motivator of prosocial behavior, but can also result in personal distress (PD), which may hinder prosocial behavior. Examining neural substrates of emotional reactivity may elucidate how EC and PD differentially influence prosocial behavior. Participants (N = 57) provided measures of EC, PD, prosocial behavior, and neural responses to emotional expressions at ages 10 and 13. Initial EC predicted subsequent prosocial behavior. Initial EC and PD predicted subsequent reactivity to emotions in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and inferior parietal lobule, respectively. Activity in the IFG, a region linked to mirror neuron processes, as well as cognitive control and language, mediated the relation between initial EC and subsequent prosocial behavior.

Assessing Empathy across Childhood and Adolescence: Validation of the Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (EmQue-CA)

Empathy plays a crucial role in healthy social functioning and in maintaining positive social relationships. In this study, 1250 children and adolescents (10-15 year olds) completed the newly developed Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (EmQue-CA) that was tested on reliability, construct validity, convergent validity, and concurrent validity. The EmQue-CA aims to assess empathy using the following scales: affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and intention to comfort. A Principal Components Analysis, which was directly tested with a Confirmatory Factor Analysis, confirmed the proposed three-factor model resulting in 14 final items. Reliability analyses demonstrated high internal consistency of the scales. Furthermore, the scales showed high convergent validity, as they were positively correlated with related scales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983). With regard to concurrent validity, higher empathy was related to more attention to others' emotions, higher friendship quality, less focus on own affective state, and lower levels of bullying behavior. Taken together, we show that the EmQue-CA is a reliable and valid instrument to measure empathy in typically developing children and adolescents aged 10 and older.

Prosocial Behavior and Depression: a Case for Developmental Gender Differences

Purpose of Review

Prosocial behavior and depression are related constructs that both increase during adolescence and display gender-specific effects. The current review surveys literature examining the association between depressive symptoms and prosociality, measured with behavioral economic paradigms, across development and proposes a theoretical model explaining a mechanism through which adolescent girls have higher risk for depression than boys.

Recent Findings

Relative to healthy controls, prosocial behavior is reduced in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) but may be increased in adolescents with MDD. The relationship between non-clinical levels of depressive symptoms and prosocial behavior remains to be studied experimentally; however, self-reported prosocial behavior is negatively associated with depressive symptoms in non-clinical adolescents, which may suggest a shift in the relation of prosocial behavior and depressive symptoms across the non-clinical (i.e., negative) to clinical range (i.e., positive).

Summary

The effect of gender on these developmental and clinical status shifts has not been studied but could have important implications for understanding the emergence of higher rates of depression in girls than boys during adolescence. We propose that girls are at heightened risk for depression due to higher social-evaluative concern and other-oriented prosocial motivation that emphasize the needs of others over the self, leading to more altruistic prosocial behavior (despite personal cost) and a higher burden that enables depressive symptoms.

But is helping you worth the risk? Defining Prosocial Risk Taking in adolescence

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Changes in the adolescent brain contribute to both risk taking and prosocial behaviors.

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Interactions between risk taking, prosociality, and social context remain unstudied.

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We propose a new area of study, Prosocial Risk Taking (PSRT).

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Prosocial Risk Taking involves helping another individual at a risk to oneself.

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Social risks may be more salient than other risk types for PSRT behaviors.

Recent work has shown that the same neural circuitry that typically underlies risky behaviors also contributes to prosocial behaviors. Despite the striking overlap between two seemingly distinct behavioral patterns, little is known about how risk taking and prosociality interact and inform adolescent decision making. We review literature on adolescent brain development as it pertains to risk taking and prosociality and propose a new area of study, Prosocial Risk Taking, which suggests that adolescents can make risky decisions with the intention of helping other individuals. Given key socialization processes and ongoing neurodevelopmental changes during this time, adolescence may represent a sensitive period for the emergence of Prosocial Risk Taking, especially within a wide variety of social contexts when youth’s increased sensitivity to social evaluation and belonging impacts their behaviors. Prosocial Risk Taking in adolescence is an area of study that has been overlooked in the literature, but could help explain how ontogenetic changes in the adolescent brain may create not only vulnerabilities, but also opportunities for healthy prosocial development.

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.

Face-to-Face Sharing with Strangers and Altruistic Punishment of Acquaintances for Strangers: Young Adolescents Exhibit Greater Altruism than Adults

Young adolescents are generally considered to be self-absorbed. Studies indicate that they lack relevant general cognitive abilities, such as impulse control, that mature in early adulthood. However, their idealism may cause them to be more intolerant of unfair treatment to others and thus result in their engaging in more altruistic behavior. The present study aimed to clarify whether young adolescents are more altruistic than adults and thus indicate whether altruistic competence is domain-specific. One hundred 22 young adolescents and adults participated in a face-to-face, two-round, third-party punishment experiment. In each interaction group, a participant served as an allocator who could share money units with a stranger; another participant who knew the allocator could punish the acquaintance for the stranger. Participants reported their emotions after the first round, and at the end of the experiment, the participants justified their behavior in each round. The results indicated that the young adolescents both shared more and punished more than did the adults. Sharing was associated with a reference to fairness in the justifications, but altruistic punishment was associated with subsequent positive emotion. In sum, greater altruism in young adolescents compared to adults with mature cognitive abilities provides evidence of domain-specificity of altruistic competence. Moreover, sharing and altruistic punishment are related to specific cognitive and emotional mechanisms, respectively.

Longitudinal links between childhood peer acceptance and the neural correlates of sharing

Childhood peer acceptance is associated with high levels of prosocial behavior and advanced perspective taking skills. Yet, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these associations have not been studied. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined the neural correlates of sharing decisions in a group of adolescents who had a stable accepted status (n = 27) and a group who had a chronic rejected status (n = 19) across six elementary school grades. Both groups of adolescents played three allocation games in which they could share money with strangers with varying costs and profits to them and the other person. Stably accepted adolescents were more likely to share their money with unknown others than chronically rejected adolescents when sharing was not costly. Neuroimaging analyses showed that stably accepted adolescents, compared to chronically rejected adolescents, exhibited higher levels of activation in the temporo‐parietal junction, posterior superior temporal sulcus, temporal pole, pre‐supplementary motor area, and anterior insula during costly sharing decisions. These findings demonstrate that stable peer acceptance across childhood is associated with heightened activity in brain regions previously linked to perspective taking and the detection of social norm violations during adolescence, and thereby provide insight into processes underlying the widely established links between peer acceptance and prosocial behavior.

Prosocial Reward Learning in Children and Adolescents

Adolescence is a period of increased sensitivity to social contexts. To evaluate how social context sensitivity changes over development—and influences reward learning—we investigated how children and adolescents perceive and integrate rewards for oneself and others during a dynamic risky decision-making task. Children and adolescents (N = 75, 8–16 years) performed the Social Gambling Task (SGT, Kwak et al., 2014) and completed a set of questionnaires measuring other-regarding behavior. In the SGT, participants choose amongst four card decks that have different payout structures for oneself and for a charity. We examined patterns of choices, overall decision strategies, and how reward outcomes led to trial-by-trial adjustments in behavior, as estimated using a reinforcement-learning model. Performance of children and adolescents was compared to data from a previously collected sample of adults (N = 102) performing the identical task. We found that that children/adolescents were not only more sensitive to rewards directed to the charity than self but also showed greater prosocial tendencies on independent measures of other-regarding behavior. Children and adolescents also showed less use of a strategy that prioritizes rewards for self at the expense of rewards for others. These results support the conclusion that, compared to adults, children and adolescents show greater sensitivity to outcomes for others when making decisions and learning about potential rewards.

Brain stimulation reveals crucial role of overcoming self-centeredness in self-control

Neurobiological models of self-control predominantly focus on the role of prefrontal brain mechanisms involved in emotion regulation and impulse control. We provide evidence for an entirely different neural mechanism that promotes self-control by overcoming bias for the present self, a mechanism previously thought to be mainly important for interpersonal decision-making. In two separate studies, we show that disruptive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the temporo-parietal junction-a brain region involved in overcoming one's self-centered perspective-increases the discounting of delayed and prosocial rewards. This effect of TMS on temporal and social discounting is accompanied by deficits in perspective-taking and does not reflect altered spatial reorienting and number recognition. Our findings substantiate a fundamental commonality between the domains of self-control and social decision-making and highlight a novel aspect of the neurocognitive processes involved in self-control.