Reward Processing in Adolescence

描述(由申请人提供)：奖励处理是决策过程中的重要组成部分，与冒险行为、情绪障碍和药物滥用有关。青春期是一个发展时期，冒险行为达到顶峰，情绪障碍和药物滥用可能出现。对于奖惩如何改变青春期的行为，我们还没有一个清晰的认识。我们对奖惩如何影响大脑回路的了解就更少了，大脑回路被招募来在这个发育阶段做出决定。我们计划对120名10岁至20岁的健康受试者进行纵向/横断面混合设计，研究时间跨度为10年。我们将使用眼动作为模型系统，评估与货币激励对抑制任务不当反应能力的影响相关的发展变化。利用功能磁共振成像，我们将研究支持奖惩处理的额纹状体回路招募的发育变化，并表征这些如何影响支持认知控制的已知机制。弥散张量成像(DTI)将被用来评估髓鞘形成对观察到的额纹状体回路招募的变化以及随后的发育行为变化的贡献。这些结果与年龄、青春期状态、性别和感觉寻求指数之间的关联将被调查，以解释发展轨迹中的个体差异。这项工作将产生一个在青春期期间奖惩过程成熟的标准模板，这是了解青少年大脑中冒险行为、情绪障碍和药物滥用的脆弱性的关键一步。与公共健康相关：青春期是以冒险行为(滥用药物、无保护措施的性行为、极限运动)增加为标志的时期，这导致了惊人的高死亡率。此外，大多数重大精神疾病都出现在从青春期到成年期的过渡时期。我们提出的研究可以通过提供有关青春期大脑处理的局限性和脆弱性以及这些因素如何影响奖励评估和决策的信息来为这些文献提供信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Reward processing is a crucial component of decision making and has implications for risk taking behavior, mood disorders, and substance abuse. Adolescence is a period of development when risk taking behavior peaks and mood disorders and substance abuse can emerge. We do not yet have a clear understanding of how reward and punishment alter behavior in adolescence. We have even less of an understanding of how reward/punishment influences the brain circuitry that is recruited to make decisions at this developmental stage. We propose to study 120 ten to 20 year-old healthy subjects in a hybrid longitudinal/cross-sectional design that spans ten years of development. We will assess the developmental changes related to the effects of monetary incentives on the ability to suppress task inappropriate responses, using eye movements as a model system. Using fMRI, we will investigate developmental changes in the recruitment of frontostriatal circuitry supporting reward/punishment processing and characterize how these affect known mechanisms supporting cognitive control. Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) will be used to assess the contribution of myelination to observed changes in the recruitment of frontostriatal circuitry and subsequent behavioral changes with development. Associations between these results and age, pubertal status, gender, and sensation seeking indices will be investigated to account for individual variability in developmental trajectories. This work will result in a normative template of the maturation of reward/punishment processes through adolescence, a critical step toward understanding vulnerabilities in the adolescent brain for risk taking behavior, mood disorders, and substance abuse. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Adolescence is a period marked by an increase in risk-taking behavior (substance abuse, unprotected sex, extreme sports) that has lead to a strikingly high mortality rate. Additionally, most major psychiatric illnesses emerge during the period of transition from adolescence to adulthood. We propose studies that can inform these literatures by providing information regarding the limitations and vulnerabilities in brain processing present in adolescence and how these affect reward assessment and decision making.