Self-Regulation of Reward in Adolescence

为响应RFA-AG-11-010，自我调节基础研究，本提案采用跨学科方法开发和试点一种新的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）范式，用于评估青少年与反应性和自我调节相关的神经回路中的奖励功能。本研究的总体目标是开发评估青少年时期奖励相关问题行为（如物质使用、寻求感觉、抑郁症状和艾滋病毒风险行为）发展机制的方法。最终，拟议的研究可能与防止这些问题发展成严重的健康问题（如成瘾、抑郁和艾滋病毒）有关。本研究设计的新型功能磁共振成像范式将比当前的功能磁共振成像奖励范式更具生态有效性，因为它将关注个人相关的同伴环境，这些环境为奖励功能的自我调节创造了需求。在fMRI模式发展之后，本研究将检测70名健康社区青少年纹状体和内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）对任务的神经反应，以及这些区域之间的功能连接。本研究将探讨青少年对新的fMRI任务的神经反应与他们对既定奖励任务的神经反应之间的关系；对计算机任务的行为反应；与同伴互动的行为反应；生态瞬时评价中积极情感的主观体验。这一策略将允许评估新任务对当前奖励功能测量的改善程度。最后，本研究将测试新的fMRI任务与青少年当前与奖励自我调节相关的问题行为的关联，包括感觉寻求行为、物质使用、抑郁症状和艾滋病毒风险行为。总之，本研究提供了一个机会来研究一种新的功能磁共振成像范式如何很好地捕捉青少年的奖励功能并预测问题行为，并最终应用于研究严重问题行为的纵向发展机制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In response to RFA-AG-11-010, Basic Research on Self-Regulation, the current proposal takes an interdisciplinary approach to developing and piloting a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm for assessing adolescents' reward function in neural circuits implicated in reactivity and self- regulation. The overall goal of the proposed study is to develop methods for assessing the mechanisms of the development, during adolescence, of reward-related problem behaviors such as substance use, sensation- seeking, depressive symptoms, and HIV-risk behavior. Ultimately, the proposed study may have relevance to preventing these problems from developing into serious health problems such as addiction, depression, and HIV. The novel fMRI paradigm designed in the proposed study will be more ecologically valid than current fMRI reward paradigms because it will focus on personally relevant peer contexts, which create demands for the self-regulation of reward function. After development of the fMRI paradigm, the proposed study will examine 70 healthy community adolescents' neural response to the task in the striatum and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), as well as functional connectivity between these regions. The proposed study will investigate the association between adolescents' neural response to the novel fMRI task and their neural response to established reward tasks; behavioral response to computer tasks; behavioral response to interactions with peers; and subjective experience of positive affect during ecological momentary assessment. This strategy will allow the evaluation of how well the novel task improves on current measures of reward function. Finally, the proposed study will test the association of the novel fMRI task with adolescents' current problem behaviors relevant to the self-regulation of reward, including sensation-seeking behavior, substance use, depressive symptoms, and HIV-risk behavior. In all, the proposed study offers the opportunity to investigate how well a novel fMRI paradigm captures adolescents' reward function and predicts problem behaviors, with ultimate applications to investigating the mechanisms of the longitudinal development of serious problem behaviors.