Associations between peer attachment and neural correlates of risk processing across adolescence

Abstract

Adolescence is a period of increased risk-taking behavior where individual differences in risk taking may relate to both adverse and positive experiences with peers. Yet, knowledge on how risk processing develops in the adolescent brain and whether this development is related to peer attachment is limited. In this longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we collected data from 167 adolescents (53% male) followed for four annual assessments across ages 13-17 years. At each assessment, participants completed a lottery choice task to assess neural risk processing and reported on their perceived attachment to peers and parents. Behaviorally, risk-preference on the lottery choice task decreased linearly with age. Neural activation during risk processing was consistently found in the insula and dACC across the four assessments and increased linearly from ages 13-17 years. Furthermore, higher peer attachment was related to greater right insula risk processing for males but not for females, even after controlling for parental attachment. The magnitudes of this association did not change with age. Findings demonstrate that neural risk processing shows maturation across adolescence and high peer attachment may be associated with low risk taking by heightening neural sensitivity to potential risks for male adolescents.

Keywords: Adolescence; Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; Insula; Peer attachment; Risk taking; fMRI.

Fig. 1

Lottery choice task. On each trial, two gambles were presented with the same probabilities of winning a high or low outcome. However, gambles differed on the variance in low and high outcome. That is, on riskier gambles (right gamble) the difference between the high and low outcome was larger ($3.85 - $0.10) than on the safer gambles (left gamble, $2.00 - $1.60). Outcomes and probabilities were presented in corresponding colors (purple and orange). The decision phase was followed by a fixation screen after which the outcome on the chosen gamble was shown. Trials ended with a jittered inter-trial interval (ITI).

Fig. 2

During the decision phase increased activation was found in the insula (INS) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) during riskier gambles as was indicated by the coefficient of variation (CV).

Fig. 3

Associations between peer attachment and neural risk processing for males and females in the right insula. Shades around the regression lines represent the 95 % confidence interval. * p < .05.