Asymmetric neural tracking of gain and loss magnitude during adolescence

Examining the Association between Punishment and Reward Sensitivity and Response Inhibition to Previously-Incentivized Cues across Development

Processing and learning from affective cues to guide goal-directed behavior may be particularly important during adolescence; yet the factors that promote and/or disrupt the ability to integrate value in order to guide decision making across development remain unclear. The present study (N = 1046) assessed individual difference factors (self-reported punishment and reward sensitivity) related to whether previously-rewarded and previously-punished cues differentially impact goal-directed behavior (response inhibition) in a large developmental sample. Participants were between the ages of 8-21 years (Mage = 14.29, SD = 3.97, 50.38% female). Previously-rewarded cues improved response inhibition among participants age 14 and older. Further, punishment sensitivity predicted overall improved response inhibition among participants aged 10 to 18. The results highlight two main factors that are associated with improvements in the ability to integrate value to guide goal-directed behaviour - cues in the environment (e.g., reward-laden cues) and individual differences in punishment sensitivity. These findings have implications for both educational and social policies aimed at characterizing the ways in which youth integrate value to guide decision making.

Neural sensitivity following stress predicts anhedonia symptoms: a 2-year multi-wave, longitudinal study

Animal models of depression show that acute stress negatively impacts functioning in neural regions sensitive to reward and punishment, often manifesting as anhedonic behaviors. However, few human studies have probed stress-induced neural activation changes in relation to anhedonia, which is critical for clarifying risk for affective disorders. Participants (N = 85, 12-14 years-old, 53 female), oversampled for risk of depression, were administered clinical assessments and completed an fMRI guessing task during a baseline (no-stress) period to probe neural response to receipt of rewards and losses. After the initial task run of the fMRI guessing task, participants received an acute stressor and then, were re-administered the guessing task. Including baseline, participants provided up to 10 self-report assessments of life stress and symptoms over a 2 year period. Linear mixed-effects models estimated whether change in neural activation (post- vs. pre-acute stressor) moderated the longitudinal associations between life stress and symptoms. Primary analyses indicated that adolescents with stress-related reductions in right ventral striatum response to rewards exhibited stronger longitudinal associations between life stress and anhedonia severity (β = -0.06, 95%CI[-0.11, -0.02], p = 0.008, pFDR = 0.048). Secondary analyses showed that longitudinal positive associations between life stress and depression severity were moderated by stress-related increases in dorsal striatum response to rewards (left caudate β = 0.11, 95%CI[0.07,0.17], p < 0.001, pFDR = 0.002; right caudate β = 0.07, 95%CI[0.02,0.12], p = 0.002, pFDR = 0.003; left putamen β = 0.09, 95%CI[0.04, 0.14], p < 0.001, pFDR = 0.002; right putamen β = 0.08, 95%CI[0.03, 0.12], p < 0.001, pFDR = 0.002). Additionally, longitudinal positive associations among life stress and anxiety severity were moderated by stress-related reductions in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (β = -0.07, 95%CI[-0.12,.02], p = 0.008, pFDR = 0.012) and right anterior insula (β = -0.07, 95%CI[-0.12,-0.02], p = 0.002, pFDR = 0.006) response to loss. All results held when adjusting for comorbid symptoms. Results show convergence with animal models, highlighting mechanisms that may facilitate stress-induced anhedonia as well as a separable pathway for the emergence of depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Neural Sensitivity following Stress Predicts Anhedonia Symptoms: A 2-Year Multi-wave, Longitudinal Study

Animal models of depression show that acute stress negatively impacts functioning in neural regions sensitive to reward and punishment, often manifesting as anhedonic behaviors. However, few human studies have probed stress-induced neural activation changes in relation to anhedonia, which is critical for clarifying risk for affective disorders. Participants (N = 85 , 12-14-years-old, 53 female), oversampled for risk of depression, were administered clinical assessments and completed an fMRI guessing task to probe neural response to receipt of rewards and losses. After the initial task run, participants received an acute stressor and then, were re-administered the guessing task. Including baseline, participants provided up to 10 self-report assessments of life stress and symptoms over a 2-year period. Linear mixed-effects models estimated whether change in neural activation (post- vs. pre-acute stressor) moderated the longitudinal associations between life stress and symptoms over time. Primary analyses indicated that adolescents with stress-related reductions in right ventral striatum response to rewards exhibited stronger longitudinal associations between life stress and anhedonia severity p F D R = . 048 . Secondary analyses showed that longitudinal associations among life stress and depression severity were moderated by stress-related increases in dorsal striatum response to rewards p F D R < . 002 . Additionally, longitudinal associations among life stress and anxiety severity were moderated by stress-related reductions in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and right anterior insula response to loss p F D R ≤ . 012 . All results held when adjusting for comorbid symptoms. Results show convergence with animal models, highlighting mechanisms that may facilitate stress-induced anhedonia as well as a separable pathway for the emergence of depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Critical tests of fuzzy trace theory in brain and behavior: uncertainty across time, probability, and development

Uncertainty permeates decisions from the trivial to the profound. Integrating brain and behavioral evidence, we discuss how probabilistic (varied outcomes) and temporal (delayed outcomes) uncertainty differ across age and individuals; how critical tests adjudicate between theories of uncertainty (prospect theory and fuzzy-trace theory); and how these mechanisms might be represented in the brain. The same categorical gist representations of gains and losses account for choices and eye-tracking data in both value-allocation (add money to gambles) and risky-choice tasks, disconfirming prospect theory and confirming predictions of fuzzy-trace theory. The analysis is extended to delay discounting and disambiguated choices, explaining hidden-zero effects that similarly turn on categorical distinctions between some gain and no gain, certain gain and uncertain gain, gain and loss, and now and later. Bold activation implicates dorsolateral prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices in gist strategies that are not just one tool in a grab-bag of cognitive options but rather are general strategies that systematically predict behaviors across many different tasks involving probabilistic and temporal uncertainty. High valuation (e.g., ventral striatum; ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and low executive control (e.g., lateral prefrontal cortex) contribute to risky and impatient choices, especially in youth. However, valuation in ventral striatum supports reward-maximizing and gist strategies in adulthood. Indeed, processing becomes less "rational" in the sense of maximizing gains and more noncompensatory (eye movements indicate fewer tradeoffs) as development progresses from adolescence to adulthood, as predicted. Implications for theoretically predicted "public-health paradoxes" are discussed, including gist versus verbatim thinking in drug experimentation and addiction.

The Added Value of Crosstalk Between Developmental Circuit Neuroscience and Clinical Practice to Inform the Treatment of Adolescent Anxiety

Significant advances have been made in recent years regarding the developmental trajectories of brain circuits and networks, revealing links between brain structure and function. Emerging evidence highlights the importance of developmental trajectories in determining early psychiatric outcomes. However, efforts to encourage crosstalk between basic developmental neuroscience and clinical practice are limited. Here, we focus on the potential advantage of considering features of neural circuit development when optimizing treatments for adolescent patient populations. Drawing on characteristics of adolescent neurodevelopment, we highlight two examples, safety cues and incentives, that leverage insights from neural circuit development and may have great promise for augmenting existing behavioral treatments for anxiety disorders during adolescence. This commentary seeks to serve as a framework to maximize the translational potential of basic research in developmental populations for strengthening psychiatric treatments. In turn, input from clinical practice including the identification of age-specific clinically relevant phenotypes will continue to guide future basic research in the same neural circuits to better reflect clinical practices. Encouraging reciprocal communication to bridge the gap between basic developmental neuroscience research and clinical implementation is an important step toward advancing both research and practice in this domain.

Reward-motivated memories influence new learning across development

Previously rewarding experiences can influence choices in new situations. Past work has demonstrated that existing reward associations can either help or hinder future behaviors and that there is substantial individual variability in the transfer of value across contexts. Developmental changes in reward sensitivity may also modulate the impact of prior reward associations on later goal-directed behavior. The current study aimed to characterize how reward associations formed in the past affected learning in the present from childhood to adulthood. Participants completed a reinforcement learning paradigm using high- and low-reward stimuli from a task completed 24 h earlier, as well as novel stimuli, as choice options. We found that prior high-reward associations impeded learning across all ages. We then assessed how individual differences in the prioritization of high- versus low-reward associations in memory impacted new learning. Greater high-reward memory prioritization was associated with worse learning performance for previously high-reward relative to low-reward stimuli across age. Adolescents also showed impeded early learning regardless of individual differences in high-reward memory prioritization. Detrimental effects of previous reward on choice behavior did not persist beyond learning. These findings indicate that prior reward associations proactively interfere with future learning from childhood to adulthood and that individual differences in reward-related memory prioritization influence new learning across age.

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex plays causal role in probability weighting during risky choice

In this study, we provide causal evidence that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) supports the computation of subjective value in choices under risk via its involvement in probability weighting. Following offline continuous theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) of the DLPFC subjects (N = 30, mean age 23.6, 56% females) completed a computerized task consisting of 96 binary lottery choice questions presented in random order. Using the hierarchical Bayesian modeling approach, we then estimated the structural parameters of risk preferences (the degree of risk aversion and the curvature of the probability weighting function) and analyzed the obtained posterior distributions to determine the effect of stimulation on model parameters. On a behavioral level, temporary downregulation of the left DLPFC excitability through cTBS decreased the likelihood of choosing an option with higher expected reward while the probability of choosing a riskier lottery did not significantly change. Modeling the stimulation effects on risk preference parameters showed anecdotal evidence as assessed by Bayes factors that probability weighting parameter increased after the left DLPFC TMS compared to sham.

Functional activation of insula and dorsal anterior cingulate for conflict control against larger monetary loss in young adults with subthreshold depression: a preliminary study

Subthreshold depression (StD) is associated with higher risk of later developing major depressive disorder (MDD). Deficits of goal-directed behaviors regarding the motional, motivational, and conflict control are found in MDD. The current study examined neural underpinning of conflict control against monetary punishment in StD compared to MDD and healthy controls (HC). Seventy-one participants (HC, n = 27; StD, n = 21; MDD, n = 23) in their mid-20's completed self-reports. Preprocessing of functional magnetic resonance imaging acquired for the Simon task against larger or smaller monetary punishment was conducted using ENIGMA HALFpipe version 1.2.1. Neural correlates of conflict control against monetary punishment that could vary with either diagnosis or PHQ-9 total score were examined using a general linear model of FSL. Simon effect was effective for reaction time and accuracy in every subgroup of diagnosis and regardless of the size of monetary punishment. Conflict control against larger monetary loss was associated with higher functional activation of left insula in StD than HC and MDD. StD showed lower functional activation of left dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) than MDD for conflict control against larger monetary loss. For conflict control against smaller monetary loss, StD demonstrated higher functional activation of left paracentral lobule and right putamen compared to HC. Directed acyclic graphs showed directional associations from suicidal ideation, sadness, and concentration difficulty to functional activation of paracentral lobule, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and thalamus for conflict control against monetary loss. Differential functional activation of insula and dACC for conflict control against larger monetary loss could be a brain phenotype of StD. Item-level depressive symptoms of suicidal ideation, sadness, and concentration difficulty could be reflected in the conflict control-related functional activation of paracentral lobule (against smaller monetary loss), vmPFC and thalamus (against larger monetary loss), respectively.

Reinforcement learning and bayesian inference provide complementary models for the unique advantage of adolescents in stochastic reversal

During adolescence, youth venture out, explore the wider world, and are challenged to learn how to navigate novel and uncertain environments. We investigated how performance changes across adolescent development in a stochastic, volatile reversal-learning task that uniquely taxes the balance of persistence and flexibility. In a sample of 291 participants aged 8–30, we found that in the mid-teen years, adolescents outperformed both younger and older participants. We developed two independent cognitive models, based on Reinforcement learning (RL) and Bayesian inference (BI). The RL parameter for learning from negative outcomes and the BI parameters specifying participants’ mental models were closest to optimal in mid-teen adolescents, suggesting a central role in adolescent cognitive processing. By contrast, persistence and noise parameters improved monotonically with age. We distilled the insights of RL and BI using principal component analysis and found that three shared components interacted to form the adolescent performance peak: adult-like behavioral quality, child-like time scales, and developmentally-unique processing of positive feedback. This research highlights adolescence as a neurodevelopmental window that can create performance advantages in volatile and uncertain environments. It also shows how detailed insights can be gleaned by using cognitive models in new ways.

How Fuzzy-trace Theory Predicts Development of Risky Decision Making, with Novel Extensions to Culture and Reward Sensitivity

Comprehensive meta-analyses of risky decision making in children, adolescents, and adults have revealed that age trends in disambiguated laboratory tasks confirmed fuzzy-trace theory's prediction that preference for risk decreases monotonically from childhood to adulthood. These findings are contrary to predictions of dual systems or neurobiological imbalance models. Assumptions about increasing developmental reliance on mental representations of the gist of risky options are essential to account for this developmental trend. However, dual systems theory appropriately emphasizes how cultural context changes behavioral manifestation of risk preferences across age and neurobiological imbalance models appropriately emphasize developmental changes in reward sensitivity. All of the major theories include the assumption of increasing behavioral inhibition. Here, we integrate these theoretical constructs-representation, cultural context, reward sensitivity, and behavioral inhibition-to provide a novel framework for understanding and improving risky decision making in youth. We also discuss the roles of critical tests, scientific falsification, disambiguating assessments of psychological and neurological processes, and the misuse of such concepts as ecological validity and reverse inference. We illustrate these concepts by extending fuzzy-trace theory to explain why youth are a major conduit of viral infections, including the virus that causes COVID-19. We conclude by encouraging behavioral scientists to embrace new ways of thinking about risky decision making that go beyond traditional stereotypes about adolescents and that go beyond conceptualizing ideal decision making as trading off degrees of risk and reward.

Valence bias in metacontrol of decision making in adolescents and young adults

The development of metacontrol of decision making and its susceptibility to framing effects were investigated in a sample of 201 adolescents and adults in Germany (12-25 years, 111 female, ethnicity not recorded). In a task that dissociates model-free and model-based decision making, outcome magnitude and outcome valence were manipulated. Both adolescents and adults showed metacontrol and metacontrol tended to increase across adolescence. Furthermore, model-based decision making was more pronounced for loss compared to gain frames but there was no evidence that this framing effect differed with age. Thus, the strategic adaptation of decision making continues to develop into young adulthood and for both adolescents and adults, losses increase the motivation to invest cognitive resources into an effortful decision-making strategy.

Adolescent Decision-Making Under Risk: Neural Correlates and Sex Differences

An increased propensity for risk taking is a hallmark of adolescent behavior with significant health and social consequences. Here, we elucidated cortical and subcortical regions associated with risky and risk-averse decisions and outcome evaluation using the Balloon Analog Risk Task in a large sample of adolescents (n = 256, 56% female, age 14 ± 0.6), including the level of risk as a parametric modulator. We also identified sex differences in neural activity. Risky decisions engaged regions that are parts of the salience, dorsal attention, and frontoparietal networks, but only the insula was sensitive to increasing risks in parametric analyses. During risk-averse decisions, the same networks covaried with parametric levels of risk. The dorsal striatum was engaged by both risky and risk-averse decisions, but was not sensitive to escalating risk. Negative-outcome processing showed greater activations than positive-outcome processing. Insula, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, middle, rostral, and superior frontal areas, rostral and caudal anterior cingulate cortex were activated only by negative outcomes, with a subset of regions associated with negative outcomes showing greater activation in females. Taken together, these results suggest that safe decisions are predicted by more accurate neural representation of increasing risk levels, whereas reward-related processes play a relatively minor role.

Self-Oriented Neural Circuitry Predicts Other-Oriented Adaptive Risks in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study

Adolescence is marked by changes in decision-making and perspective-taking abilities. Although adolescents make more adaptive decisions with age, little is understood about how adolescents take adaptive risks that impact others and how this behavior changes developmentally. Functional coupling between reward [e.g., ventral striatum (VS)] and ‘social brain’ [e.g. temporal parietal junction (TPJ)/ posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)] systems may be differentially shape adaptive risks for the self and other. A total of 173 participants completed between one and three sessions across three waves [a total of 433 behavioral and 403 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data points]. During an fMRI scan, adolescents completed a risky decision-making task where they made risky decisions to win money for themselves and their parent. The risky decisions varied in their expected value (EV) of potential reward. Results show that from the 6th through 9th grades, adolescents took increasingly more adaptive risks for themselves than for their parent. Additionally, greater VS–TPJ/pSTS and VS–mPFC connectivity that tracks EV when making risky decisions for themselves in 6th grade, but a lower VS–mPFC connectivity in 9th grade, predicted greater adaptive risk-taking for their parent. This study contributes to our understanding of the self as a neural proxy for promoting adaptive social behaviors in youth.

White-matter tract connecting anterior insula to nucleus accumbens predicts greater future motivation in adolescents

The motivation to approach or avoid incentives can change during adolescence. Advances in neuroimaging allow researchers to characterize specific brain circuits that underlie these developmental changes. Whereas activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) can predict approach toward incentive gain, activity in anterior insula (AIns) is associated with avoidance of incentive loss. Recent research characterized the structural white-matter tract connecting the two brain regions, but the tract has neither been characterized in adolescence nor linked to functional activity during incentive anticipation. In this study, we collected diffusion MRI and characterized the tract connecting the AIns to the NAcc for the first time in early adolescents. We then measured NAcc functional activity during a monetary incentive delay task and found that structural coherence of the AIns-NAcc tract is correlated with decreased functional activity at the NAcc terminal of the tract during anticipation of no incentives. In adolescents who completed an assessment 2 years later, we found that AIns-NAcc tract coherence could predict greater future self-reported motivation, and that NAcc functional activity could statistically mediate this association. Together, the findings establish links from brain structure to function to future motivation and provide targets to study the reciprocal development of brain structure and function.

Neural tracking of subjective value under riskand ambiguity in adolescence

Although many neuroimaging studies on adolescent risk taking have focused on brain activation during outcome valuation, less attention has been paid to the neural correlates of choice valuation. Subjective choice valuation may be particularly influenced by whether a choice presents risk (known probabilities) or ambiguity (unknown probabilities), which has rarely been studied in developmental samples. Therefore, we examined the neural tracking of subjective value during choice under risk and ambiguity in a large sample of adolescents (N = 188, 12–22 years). Specifically, we investigated which brain regions tracked subjective value coding under risk and ambiguity. A model-based approach to estimate individuals’ risk and ambiguity attitudes showed prominent variation in individuals’ aversions to risk and ambiguity. Furthermore, participants subjectively experienced the ambiguous options as being riskier than the risky options. Subjective value tracking under risk was coded by activation in ventral striatum and superior parietal cortex. Subjective value tracking under ambiguity was coded by dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and superior temporal gyrus activation. Finally, overlapping activation in the dorsomedial PFC was observed for subjective value under both conditions. Overall, this is the first study to chart brain activation patterns for subjective choice valuation under risk and ambiguity in an adolescent sample, which shows that the building blocks for risk and ambiguity processing are already present in early adolescence. Finally, we highlight the potential of combining behavioral modeling with fMRI for investigating choice valuation in adolescence, which may ultimately aid in understanding who takes risks and why.

Test-retest reliability of fMRI-measured brain activity during decision making under risk

Neural correlates of decision making under risk are being increasingly utilized as biomarkers of risk for substance abuse and other psychiatric disorders, treatment outcomes, and brain development. This research relies on the basic assumption that fMRI measures of decision making represent stable, trait-like individual differences. However, reliability needs to be established for each individual construct. Here we assessed long-term test-retest reliability (TRR) of regional brain activations related to decision making under risk using the Balloon Analogue Risk Taking task (BART) and identified regions with good TRRs and familial influences, an important prerequisite for the use of fMRI measures in genetic studies. A secondary goal was to examine the factors potentially affecting fMRI TRRs in one particular risk task, including the magnitude of neural activation, data analytical approaches, different methods of defining boundaries of a region, and participant motion. For the average BOLD response, reliabilities ranged across brain regions from poor to good (ICCs of 0 to 0.8, with a mean ICC of 0.17) and highest reliabilities were observed for parietal, occipital, and temporal regions. Among the regions that were of a priori theoretical importance due to their reported associations with decision making, the activation of left anterior insula and right caudate during the decision period showed the highest reliabilities (ICCs of 0.54 and 0.63, respectively). Among the regions with highest reliabilities, the right fusiform, right rostral anterior cingulate and left superior parietal regions also showed high familiality as indicated by intrapair monozygotic twin correlations (ranging from 0.66 to 0.69). Overall, regions identified by modeling the average BOLD response to a specific event type (rather than its modulation by a parametric regressor), regions including significantly activated vertices (compared to a whole parcel), and regions with greater magnitude of task-related activations showed greater reliabilities. Participant motion had a moderate negative effect on TRR. Regions activated during decision period rather than outcome period of risky decisions showed the greatest TRR and familiality. Regions with reliable activations can be utilized as neural markers of individual differences or endophenotypes in future clinical neuroscience and genetic studies of risk-taking.

Neurodevelopmental shifts in learned value transfer on cognitive control during adolescence

Value-associated cues in the environment often enhance subsequent goal-directed behaviors in adults, a phenomenon supported by the integration of motivational and cognitive neural systems. Given that the interactions among these systems change throughout adolescence, we tested when the beneficial effects of value associations on subsequent cognitive control performance emerge during adolescence. Participants (N = 81) aged 13-20 completed a reinforcement learning task with four cue-incentive pairings that could yield high gain, low gain, high loss, or low loss outcomes. Next, participants completed a Go/NoGo task during fMRI where the NoGo targets comprised the previously learned cues, which tested how prior value associations influence cognitive control performance. Improved accuracy for previously learned high gain relative to low gain cues emerged with age. Older adolescents exhibited enhanced recruitment of the dorsal striatum and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during cognitive control execution to previously learned high gain relative to low gain cues. Older adolescents also expressed increased coupling between the dorsal striatum and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for high gain cues, whereas younger adolescents expressed increased coupling between the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings reveal that learned high value cue-incentive associations enhance cognitive control in late adolescence in parallel with value-selective recruitment of corticostriatal systems.

The Lifespan Human Connectome Project in Development: A large-scale study of brain connectivity development in 5-21 year olds

Recent technological and analytical progress in brain imaging has enabled the examination of brain organization and connectivity at unprecedented levels of detail. The Human Connectome Project in Development (HCP-D) is exploiting these tools to chart developmental changes in brain connectivity. When complete, the HCP-D will comprise approximately ∼1750 open access datasets from 1300 + healthy human participants, ages 5-21 years, acquired at four sites across the USA. The participants are from diverse geographical, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. While most participants are tested once, others take part in a three-wave longitudinal component focused on the pubertal period (ages 9-17 years). Brain imaging sessions are acquired on a 3 T Siemens Prisma platform and include structural, functional (resting state and task-based), diffusion, and perfusion imaging, physiological monitoring, and a battery of cognitive tasks and self-reports. For minors, parents additionally complete a battery of instruments to characterize cognitive and emotional development, and environmental variables relevant to development. Participants provide biological samples of blood, saliva, and hair, enabling assays of pubertal hormones, health markers, and banked DNA samples. This paper outlines the overarching aims of the project, the approach taken to acquire maximally informative data while minimizing participant burden, preliminary analyses, and discussion of the intended uses and limitations of the dataset.