3-070 - Investigating Social Reward Processing in Children: Novel Assessments and Neural Markers

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Socially rewarding stimuli are highly prioritized cues found to engage brain regions implicated in reward processing. Growing evidence indicates that variation in processing of socially rewarding cues can be modulated by individual differences and atypical development. This symposium integrates developmental cognitive and affective neuroscience perspectives to showcase the relevance of socially salient cues in guiding behavior and shaping child well-being. Four papers are presented that cover a breath of measurements (e.g. EEG, ERP, ECG, and eye-tracking) and introduce novel paradigms to chart reactivity to social rewards in children and adolescents. Papers 1 and 2 examine the socially rewarding power of peer interactions in ecologically-valid contexts. This work simulates peer acceptance/rejection, elicits risk-taking behavior and tracks the influence of temperamental predispositions. Paper 3 reports frontally-focused neural processing of social rewards using a newly-designed set of affective images representing distinct categories of social and non-social reward. Paper 4 employs an innovative gaze mediated computer game in autistic and typically-developing adolescents and links neural markers of socially-rewarding feedback to variation in social function. Collectively, these cutting-edge studies on social reward processing will be considered in relation to trajectories of socio-emotional competence and self-regulation across development.

Sub Unit

• Biology and Neuroscience

Chairs

• Jennifer Martin McDermott, University of Massachusetts

• Amanda E Guyer, University of California, Davis

Individual Presentations

• Effortful Control Modulates Young Children's Affective Responses to Acceptance and Rejection from Peers - Presenting Author: Santiago Morales, Pennsylvania State University; Kayla M. Brown, Pennsylvania State University; Kristin Buss, Penn State; Koraly Perez-Edgar, The Pennsylvania State University

• Risk-Taking Propensity in the Context of Peers: Internal and External Influences - Presenting Author: Kathryn Degnan, Catholic University; Sara Nozadi, University of Maryland; Ayelet Lahat, McMaster University

• Neural markers of social and non-social reward processing in children - Presenting Author: Jennifer Martin McDermott, University of Massachusetts; Adaeze Egwuatu, University of Massachusetts

• Neural Response to Feedback and Reward in Simulated Interactions in ASD - Presenting Author: Adam Naples, Yale Child Study Center; Ariel Chang, Yale Child Study Center; Simone Hasselmo, Yale Child Study Center; Max Rolison, Yale Child Study Center; Sabrina Malak, Yale Child Study Center; Julie Trapani, Yale Child Study Center; Kayla Stinson, Yale Child Study Center; James McPartland, Yale Child Study Center