Dispositions for prosociality undergo major changes during adolescence, a period of increased sensitivity to peer influenceand incipient internalization of societal norms. However, the proximate mechanisms favoring the development of prosocialpreferences are poorly understood. Here, we show that high-status peers affect adolescents prosocial decision making.Participants repeatedly chose to either donate money to a charity or keep it for themselves and could revise their decisionupon observing the (opposite) decisions of either a high-status or low-status peer from their classroom. Participantstended to conform to peer behavior, reversing their initial preference. Importantly, this pattern was especially strong whenobserving high-status peers, suggesting that norm signalling from high-status peers can be instrumental for the diffusionof prosocial behavior. Using a novel incentivized paradigm in a naturalistic setting, we provide experimental evidencefor the role of high-status peers in the development of prosocial preferences and outline a potential path for interventionsaimed at spreading prosocial norms.

Older adults (OA) need to make many important and difficultdecisions. Often, there are too many options available to ex-plore exhaustively, creating the ubiquitous tradeoff betweenexploration and exploitation. How do OA make these com-plex tradeoffs? We investigated age-related shifts in solvingexploration-exploitation tradeoffs depending on the complex-ity of the choice environment. Participants played four andeight option bandit problems with numbers of gambles and av-erage rewards available on the screen. OA reliably performedworse in a more complex choice environment and were alsomore deviant from an optimality model (Thompson sampling),which keeps track of uncertainty beyond just the mean or lastreward. OA seem to process important information in morecomplex choice environments sub-optimally, suggesting lim-ited representations of future rewards. This interpretation fitsto multiple contexts in the complex cognitive aging literature,in particular to the context of challenges in the maintenance ofgoal-directed learning.

Wanting to matter-to feel socially recognized, appreciated, and capable of actions that benefit others-represents a fundamental motivation in human development. The motivational salience of mattering appears to increase in adolescence. Evidence suggests this is related to pubertal increases in the incentive salience for gaining social value and personal agency. This can provide a useful heuristic for understanding motivational proclivities (i.e. wanting to matter) that influence action-outcome learning as young adolescents are exploring and learning how to navigate increasingly complex social and relational environments. Adolescence also brings new capacities, motives, and opportunities for learning to care about and contribute to the benefit of others. Together, these create a window of opportunity: a sensitive period for learning to gain salient feelings of mattering through caring prosocial actions and valued societal contributions. Successfully discovering ways of mattering by doing things that matter to others may contribute to formative socio-emotional learning about self/other. Advances in understanding these social and relational learning processes and their neurodevelopmental underpinnings can inform strategies to improve developmental trajectories of social competence and wellbeing among adolescents growing up in a rapidly changing and increasingly techno-centric world.

Adolescence is a developmental period associated with an increase in impulsivity. Impulsivity is a multidimensional construct, and in this study we focus on one of the underlying components: impatience. Impatience can result from (i) disregard of future outcomes and/or (ii) oversensitivity to immediate rewards, but it is not known which of these evaluative processes underlie developmental changes. To distinguish between these two causes, we investigated developmental changes in the structural and functional connectivity of different frontostriatal tracts. We report that adolescents were more impatient on an intertemporal choice task and reported less future orientation, but not more present hedonism, than young adults. Developmental increases in structural connectivity strength in the right dorsolateral prefrontal tract were related to increased negative functional coupling with the striatum and an age-related decrease in discount rates. Our results suggest that mainly increased control, and the integration of future-oriented thought, drives the reduction in impatience across adolescence.

Large individual differences exist in the ability to delay gratification for the sake of satisfying longer-term goals. These individual differences are commonly assayed by studying intertemporal preferences, as revealed by choices between immediate and delayed rewards. In the brain, reward-based and goal-oriented decisions are believed to rely on the striatum and its interactions with other cortical and subcortical networks. However, it remains unknown which specific cortical-striatal tracts are involved in intertemporal decision making. We use connectivity analyses in both structural and functional MRI to further our understanding of the relationship between distinct corticostriatal networks and intertemporal preferences in humans. Our results revealed distinct striatal pathways that are differentially related to delay discounting. Structural and functional connectivity between striatum and lateral prefrontal cortex was associated with increased patience, whereas connectivity between subcortical areas and striatum was associated with increased impulsivity. These findings provide novel insights into how the anatomy and functioning of striatal circuits mediate individual differences in intertemporal choice.

Making better decisions typically requires obtaining information relevant to that decision. Adolescence is marked by increasing agency in decision-making and an accompanying increase in impulsive decisions, suggesting that one characteristic of adolescent decision-making is a tendency to make less-informed decisions. Adolescents could also be especially averse to the effort associated with acquiring relevant information to make decisions. To investigate this possibility, we recruited adolescents (M_age = 15.02 years) in upper-secondary schools and young adults (M_age = 20.53 years) attending university in the Netherlands to complete an effort-based information sampling task, in which participants could sample information until obtaining sufficient evidence to make a decision. Effort costs for sampling were systematically varied. Surprisingly, adolescents sampled more evidence than adults before making decisions when sampling effort costs were low. Further, adolescents obtained stronger evidence prior to their decisions than adults as effort costs increased, exhibiting less aversion to effort costs associated with information sampling. Exploratory computational models supported these findings. Both adolescents and adults used simple heuristics in deciding whether to sample additional information or make a final decision, and adolescents sought a higher evidence threshold before deciding compared with adults. These results suggest that adolescents may require more certainty to make decisions compared with adults and be less averse to effort costs when gathering information to aid decisions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescence is marked by increased risky decisions. Making better decisions typically requires obtaining more informa-tion relevant to that decision. Adolescents may be especially tolerant of uncertainty when making decisions or averseto the effort needed to obtain more information. We had adolescents and adults complete an effort-based informationsampling task, in which participants could sample information until deciding that the evidence obtained was sufficientfor responding. Effort was manipulated by varying the number of mouse clicks required to sample information acrosstrials. Surprisingly, adolescents sampled more than adults prior to responding at low effort and continued to sample moreeven as effort requirements increased. Computational modeling indicated that adolescents and adults used simple heuris-tics to decide between sampling more or responding but that adolescents sought a higher evidence threshold than adults.Adolescents may seek more information and be less averse to effort costs in information sampling compared with adults.

The onset of adolescence is associated with an increase in transgressive behaviours-from juvenile delinquency to substance use and unprotected sex-that are often attributed to increased impulsiveness. In the past, this increase was ascribed to "raging hormones"; more recently, to an imbalance in the maturation of different brain regions. However, it remains unclear how these large-scale biological changes impact specific processes that result in impulsive decisions, namely, sensitivity to immediate rewards and general discounting of future options. To gain further insight into these questions, we used an intertemporal choice task to investigate the role of testosterone in impatient decision-making in boys at the developmental transition to adolescence (N=72, ages 11-14). Our results suggest that increased testosterone (but not age) is related to increased sensitivity to immediate rewards, whereas increased age (but not testosterone) is related to a reduction in general impatience. These results are discussed in the context of recent neurobiological models of adolescent development.

There has been strong interest, spanning several disciplines, in understanding adolescence as a developmental period of increased risk-taking behavior. Our goals focus on one line of investigation within this larger developmental risk framework. Specifically, we examined levels of pubertal hormones in girls in relation to their willingness to take greater financial risks to gain social status. To this end, we tested the hypothesis that higher levels of testosterone during the ages of pubertal maturation are associated with a greater willingness to sacrifice money for social admiration. Sixty-three girls ages 10-14 (M_age=12.74) participated in laboratory measures and completed at-home saliva sample collection. The Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) and basal hormone levels (testosterone, estradiol, DHEA) measured pubertal maturation. We made use of a developmentally appropriate version of an Auction Task in which adolescents could take financial risks in order to gain socially motivated outcomes (social status). PDS and testosterone were each associated with overall levels of financial risk taking over the course of the Auction Task. In hierarchical models, PDS and testosterone were predictors of the slope of overbidding over the course of the task. Results provide evidence for the role of testosterone and pubertal maturation in girls' motivations to engage in costly decision making in order to gain social status. Findings contribute to our understanding of the developmental underpinnings of some interesting aspects of adolescent risk behavior.

Objective

Irritability is a common characteristic in ADHD. We examined whether dysfunction in neural connections supporting threat and reward processing was related to irritability in adolescents and young adults with ADHD.

Method

We used resting-state fMRI to assess connectivity of amygdala and nucleus accumbens seeds in those with ADHD (n = 34) and an age- and gender-matched typically-developing comparison group (n = 34).

Results

In those with ADHD, irritability was associated with atypical functional connectivity of both seed regions. Amygdala seeds showed greater connectivity with right inferior frontal gyrus and caudate/putamen, and less connectivity with precuneus. Nucleus accumbens seeds showed altered connectivity with middle temporal gyrus and precuneus.

Conclusion

The irritability-ADHD presentation is associated with atypical functional connectivity of reward and threat processing regions with cognitive control and emotion processing regions. These patterns provide novel evidence for irritability-associated neural underpinnings in adolescents and young adults with ADHD. The findings suggest cognitive and behavioral treatments that address response to reward, including omission of an expected reward and irritability, may be beneficial for ADHD.