Safety Versus Risk Endorsing Peer Attitudes Influence Adolescent Risk Taking Through Distinct Neural Mechanisms

• In Event: Foundations in Communication Science and Biology

Abstract

Adolescents demonstrate both heightened sensitivity to peer influence and increased risk-taking behavior, yet little is known about how these two may be related at behavioral and neural levels. In the current study, adolescents completed the balloon analogue risk task in neuroimaging scanner and a behavioral simulated driving task, in which they drove alone and with either a risky or a safe peer passenger. We found that the social context of risky vs. safe peer passenger significantly moderated the relationship between neural activation during the risk-taking task and conformity behavior in the simulated driving task. Neural activation in ventral striatum during risk-taking significantly predicted conformity behavior in the safe peer condition. The extent that neural activation in the salience network covaried with reward size significantly predicted conformity in the risky peer passenger condition. These results suggest that distinct neural systems are involved in adolescent risky decision making in different social contexts.

Authors

• Rui Pei, U of Pennsylvania

• Christopher N Cascio, U of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

• Bruce Simons-Morton, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

• Emily Falk, U of Pennsylvania