Neural cognitive control moderates the association between insular risk processing and risk-taking behaviors via perceived stress in adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is a critical period for the initiation of risk-taking behaviors. We examined the longitudinal interplay between neural correlates of risk processing and cognitive control in predicting risk-taking behaviors via stress. The sample consisted of 167 adolescents (53% males) who were assessed twice (M_AgeTime1 = 14.13, M_AgeTime2 = 15.05). Neural risk processing was operationalized as blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses in the anterior insula during a lottery choice task and neural cognitive control as BOLD responses during an inhibitory control task. Adolescents reported on perceived stress and risk-taking behaviors. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that low insular risk processing predicted increases in perceived stress, while perceived stress did not predict changes in insular risk processing across one year. Moreover, significant moderation by neural cognitive control indicated that low insular risk processing predicted increases in risk-taking behaviors via increases in perceived stress among adolescents with poor neural cognitive control, but not among adolescents with good neural cognitive control. The results suggest that risk processing in the anterior insular cortex plays an important role in stress experience and risk-taking behaviors particularly for vulnerable adolescents with poor neural cognitive control.

Keywords: Adolescence; Cognitive control; Insula; Risk-taking behaviors; Stress; fMRI.

Fig. 1

a) In the lottery choice task, adolescents were asked to choose between pairs of uncertain gambles. For each gamble, there was a high and low monetary outcome, each associated with a specific probability. The associations between outcomes and probabilities are represented with corresponding colors (orange or blue), b) Each trial consisted of a decision phase, a fixation phase, an outcome phase, and an inter-trial-interval (ITI), c) During the decision phase of the economic lottery choice task, adolescents exhibited increased BOLD responses in the bilateral anterior insular cortex to chosen gambles that were of higher relative to lower levels of risk (i.e., coefficient of variation; CV) at both Time 1 [t(145) = 7.22, p(FWE correction) < .05)] and Time 2 [(t(135) = 7.91, p(FWE correction) < .05]. Figure reprinted from Lauharatanahirun, N., Maciejewski, D., Holmes, C.J., Deater-Deckard, K., Kim-Spoon, J., & King-Casas, B. (accepted). Neural correlates of risk processing among adolescents: Influences of parental monitoring and household chaos. Child Development. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 2

a) In the multi-source interference task (MSIT), adolescents were asked to identify the digit that differed from two other concurrently presented digits, ignoring its position in the sequence. b) Adolescents exhibited greater activation for interference relative to neutral conditions in the regions of left posterior-medial frontal cortex, right and left inferior frontal gyrus, left and right inferior parietal lobules, right insula, right superior frontal gyrus, and left middle frontal gyrus, displayed at p(FWE) < .001 (see Appendix B). Reprinted from Kim-Spoon, J., Maciejewski, D., Lee, J., Deater-Deckard, K., & King-Casas (2017). Longitudinal associations among family environment, neural cognitive control, and social competence among adolescents. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 26, 69–76. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2017.04.009.

Fig. 3

Final model showing the relation among neural insula processing, neural cognitive control processing, perceived stress and risk-taking behaviors. Arrows pointing on other arrows indicate moderation effects. Standardized estimates are presented. * p ≤ .05, ** p < .01, *** p ≤ .001.

Fig. 4

Simple slope analyses comparing the relation between insular risk processing and perceived stress for adolescents with high cognitive control (low interference-related BOLD responses) and adolescents with low cognitive control (high interference-related BOLD responses). ** p < .01. Perceived stress Time 2 is controlled for perceived stress Time 1. Standardized estimates (b*) are presented.