Reward Processing in Adolescence

描述（由申请人提供）：奖励处理是决策的重要组成部分，对冒险行为，情绪障碍和药物滥用有影响。青春期是一个发展时期，在这个时期，冒险行为达到顶峰，情绪障碍和药物滥用可能出现。我们还没有清楚地了解奖励和惩罚如何改变青少年的行为。我们甚至更不了解奖励/惩罚如何影响大脑回路，在这个发展阶段，大脑回路被招募来做出决定。我们建议研究120名10至20岁的健康受试者在一个混合纵向/横断面设计，跨越十年的发展。我们将评估与金钱激励对抑制任务不当反应能力的影响相关的发展变化，使用眼动作为模型系统。使用功能磁共振成像，我们将调查支持奖励/惩罚处理的额纹状体电路的招聘的发展变化，并描述这些如何影响已知的机制，支持认知控制。将使用扩散张量成像（DTI）评估髓鞘形成对观察到的额纹状体回路募集变化和随后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，以解释个体发展轨迹的差异。这项工作将导致通过青少年的奖励/惩罚过程的成熟的规范性模板，朝着理解青少年大脑中的风险行为，情绪障碍和药物滥用的脆弱性迈出了关键的一步。公共卫生相关性：青春期是一个以冒险行为（药物滥用，无保护的性行为，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，大多数主要的精神疾病出现在从青春期到成年的过渡时期。我们提出的研究，可以告知这些文献，提供信息的局限性和脆弱性，在大脑处理目前在青春期，以及这些如何影响奖励评估和决策。

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.