3-126 - Peer influence and risky decision-making: Insight from neuroimaging

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Peer interactions are one of the most salient parts of adolescence, and while it is well established that peers often influence adolescents’ decisions, researchers are just beginning to understand the neural mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon. Recent evidence suggests that the presence of peers increases adolescent risk-taking through the action of multiple neural systems, including by increasing reward sensitivity (e.g., in striatum or orbitofrontal cortex), altering social cognition (e.g., in temporal-parietal junction or medial prefrontal cortex), and by potentially influencing the interactions between reward, social, and self-regulatory mechanisms (e.g., in lateral prefrontal cortex). In this symposium, we will present recent research that advances our understanding of the specific neural mechanisms influenced by peer interactions, and characteristics of adolescents and their peers that may moderate this effect. The research presented will focus on the role of reward circuitry in situations involving both peer interaction and decision-making. We will consider how new evidence emerging from both novel and established imaging paradigms informs the hypothesis that peer influences on decision-making are associated with heightened sensitivity in the brain’s reward circuitry, as well as other neural systems, during this stage of life. More specifically, we will present research demonstrating how outcome expectations, real-world risk-taking behaviors, perceived popularity of the peer, and chronic peer victimization influence behavior and engagement of neural circuitry. Understanding the dynamics of social influence and how it is reflected in adolescents’ neural response to reward and risk may help inform programs aimed at reducing risky behaviors during adolescence.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes

Chairs

• Jennifer H. Pfeifer, University of Oregon

• Jason Chein, Temple University

Individual Presentations

• Increased engagement of reward-processing regions during peer observation reflects higher rates of risk-taking behaviors - Presenting Author: Ashley R Smith, Temple University; Laurence Steinberg, Temple University; Jason Chein, Temple University

• Peer observation during early adolescent reward learning enhances ventral striatal responses regardless of valence - Presenting Author: Will Moore, University of Oregon; Atika Khurana, University of Oregon; Thomas J Dishion, Arizona State University; Jennifer H. Pfeifer, University of Oregon

• Chronic Peer Victimization and the Neural Correlates of Risk Taking following Social Exclusion - Presenting Author: Eva H Telzer, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Michelle Miernicki, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Karen D. Rudolph, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Neural correlates of peer influence and exposure to risky content on social media - Presenting Author: Lauren Elizabeth Sherman, University of California, Los Angeles; Leanna M Hernandez, UCLA; Patricia M Greenfield, UCLA; Mirella Dapretto, UCLA