Peer Influence, Risk, and Adolescent Social Media Use: Insight from Neuroimaging

 描述（由申请人提供）：生命的第二个十年的特点是对同龄人的兴趣和敏感性增强。因此，青少年越来越容易受到同龄人的影响，特别是在涉及风险决策的情况下。重要的是，有证据表明，在线环境中暴露于同龄人的危险行为有助于离线冒险。因此，考虑到在MRI扫描仪的范围内模仿社交媒体使用的可行性，可以以生态有效的方式调查同伴影响的神经相关性。本项目利用这个机会，通过测量神经反应的同龄人的影响力和危险的图像，因为他们在社交媒体环境中经历。通过使用神经影像学方法来检查风险决策和同伴影响，这项研究可以提供独特的洞察机制，可能缓冲个人或使他们倾向于风险结果。 48名青少年将接受功能性磁共振成像（fMRI），同时完成一项模仿社交照片共享应用程序Instagram的任务。参与者将看到一个表面上由同龄人提交的照片的提要，并决定是否“喜欢”每张照片。这项拟议中的研究将测试同伴对照片的认可程度（由之前收到的每张照片的“喜欢”数量表示）如何影响参与者的行为（即，他们是否“喜欢”每幅图像）和观看该图像时的神经反应。几张图片将描绘典型的冒险行为，包括饮酒和吸烟。参与者阿索将提交他们自己的图像以纳入研究;这将允许检查在自己的在线内容上接收社会反馈的神经相关性，以及这种反应与对同伴影响敏感性（SPI）的行为测量之间的关系。调查措施将评估参与者的冒险史、风险感知和SPI。将测试在社交媒体使用过程中冒险/SPI的个体差异与个体神经和行为反应之间的关系。 这项研究将有助于深入了解社会文化因素（即，社会媒体使用）和神经机制，有助于个人酗酒和吸毒的风险以及危险的性行为，从而有助于制定有针对性的教育方案，旨在减少青年冒险和SPI。根据NIAAA，NIDA和NCI最近的努力，形成成瘾研究的合作机会，拟议的项目将调查行为和神经生物学机制，这些机制使个人在脆弱的发展时期面临与酒精和药物滥用有关的一系列负面结果的风险增加。特别是，该项目的目标与NIAAA的未成年人饮酒研究倡议的目标一致，该倡议旨在了解导致未成年人酗酒的因素，包括数字媒体与未成年人饮酒之间的关系，以及社交媒体影响青少年饮酒的机制。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The second decade of life is characterized by an amplified interest in and sensitivity to peers. As a result, adolescents are increasingly susceptible to peer influence, particularly in situations involving risky decision-making. Importantly, evidence indicates that exposure to peers' risky behaviors in online environments contributes to offline risk-taking. Therefore, it becomes possible to investigate the neural correlates of peer influence in an ecologically valid manner, given the feasibility of mimicking social media use in the confines of an MRI scanner. The present project capitalizes on this opportunity by measuring neural responsivity to peer influence and risky images as they are experienced in a social media environment. By using a neuroimaging approach to examine risky decision-making and peer influence, this research can lend unique insight into mechanisms that may buffer individuals from or predispose them towards risky outcomes. Forty-eight adolescents will undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while completing a task that mimics the social photo-sharing application Instagram. Participants will view a feed of photographs ostensibly submitted by peers, and decide whether to "like" each image. The proposed study will test how level of peer endorsement of a photograph (indicated by the number of "likes" each photograph previously received) influences participants' behavior (i.e., whether they "like" each image) and neural responses while viewing that image. Several images will depict typical risk-taking behaviors, including alcohol and cigarette use. Participants will aso submit their own images for inclusion in the study; this will allow for the examination of the neural correlates of receiving social feedback on one's own online content, and the relation between this response and behavioral measures of susceptibility to peer influence (SPI). Survey measures will assess participants' history of risk-taking, perception of risk, and SPI. The relatio between individual differences in risk-taking/SPI and individual neural and behavioral responses during social media use will be tested. This research will lend insight into both a sociocultural factor (i.e., social media use) and neural mechanisms that contribute to individual risk for alcohol and drug abuse as well as risky sexual behavior, thereby contributing to the development of targeted educational programs designed to reduce youth risk-taking and SPI. In line with the recent efforts of the NIAAA, NIDA, and NCI to form collaborative opportunities for addiction research, the proposed project will investigate behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms that place individuals at increased risk for a range of negative outcomes relating to alcohol and drug abuse during a vulnerable developmental period. In particular, the aims of this project are consistent with the aims of NIAAA's Underage Drinking Research Initiative, which seeks to understand factors that contribute to underage alcohol abuse, including the relation between digital media and underage alcohol use, and the mechanisms whereby social media influences adolescent alcohol consumption.