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. 2018 May;89(3):797-810.
doi: 10.1111/cdev.13056. Epub 2018 Mar 13.

Contributions of Reward Sensitivity to Ventral Striatum Activity Across Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Elisabeth Schreuders  1   2 , Barbara R Braams  3 , Neeltje E Blankenstein  1   2 , Jiska S Peper  1   2 , Berna Güroğlu  1   2 , Eveline A Crone  1   2
Affiliations

Contributions of Reward Sensitivity to Ventral Striatum Activity Across Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Elisabeth Schreuders et al. Child Dev. 2018 May.

Abstract

It was examined how ventral striatum responses to rewards develop across adolescence and early adulthood and how individual differences in state- and trait-level reward sensitivity are related to these changes. Participants (aged 8-29 years) were tested across three waves separated by 2 years (693 functional MRI scans) in an accelerated longitudinal design. The results confirmed an adolescent peak in reward-related ventral striatum, specifically nucleus accumbens, activity. In early to mid-adolescence, increases in reward activation were related to trait-level reward drive. In mid-adolescence to early adulthood decreases in reward activation were related to decreases in state-level hedonic reward pleasure. This study demonstrates that state- and trait-level reward sensitivity account for reward-related ventral striatum activity in different phases of adolescence and early adulthood.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Development of (A) left and right nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activation during winning versus losing, (B) self‐reported Pleasure from winning versus losing, (C) Behavioral Activation System (BAS) drive, (D) BAS Fun Seeking, and (E) BAS Reward Responsiveness across development. The smooth lines represent the predicted values and the light ribbon their 95%‐confidence interval according to the best fitting model. Red and blue fitted lines indicate different age effects for males and females. A black fitted line indicates general age effects (no interaction with sex).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relation between left and right nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activation during winning versus losing and (A) Behavioral Activation System (BAS) drive scores from early to mid‐adolescents, and (B) Pleasure from winning versus losing corrected for the main effect of age from mid‐ to late adolescents and young adults. The smooth lines represent the predicted values and the light gray ribbon their 95% confidence interval according to the best fitting model. A black fitted line indicates general age effects (no interaction with sex).
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