1-016 - Neural Systems Underlying Processing of Social Threat and Reward in Adolescence: Implications for Affective Disorders

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Adolescence is a unique developmental period when the value of peer acceptance and rejection increases dramatically, particularly in girls. Neuroimaging studies have shown that heightened neural response to social threat (e.g., peer rejection) and social reward (e.g., peer acceptance) are potential markers of vulnerability for the development of anxiety and depression symptoms. This symposium will provide a deeper understanding of potential mechanisms of such vulnerability by including four papers on the functioning of neural systems that underlie social threat and reward processing during adolescence. The first paper examines neural response to processing cues predicting social reward (i.e., positive peer feedback) in a sample of girls varying in level of risk for anxiety disorders and suggests that greater striatal activation to social reward anticipation predicts later symptoms of social anxiety disorder. The second paper reports that greater caudate response to peer rejection, assessed using a virtual peer interaction neuroimaging task, contributes to greater detection of social threat in the environment (or vice versa) and this pattern of neural and behavioral sensitivity to peer rejection is associated with depression risk in fearful/shy girls. The third paper discusses findings in girls at risk for depression suggesting that lower physical pain tolerance at age 12 predicts greater subgenual anterior cingulate cortex response to peer rejection at age 17. The fourth paper reports findings showing that adolescents who exhibit greater cognitive disinhibition to social reward cues are at risk for internalizing symptoms and that this relation may be mediated by heightened amygdala-ventral striatum functional connectivity.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Chairs

• Cecile D Ladouceur, University of Pittsburgh

• Jennifer Silk, University of Pittsburgh

Individual Presentations

• Striatal Activation to Social Reward Anticipation Predicts Symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder in At-Risk Girls - Presenting Author: Cecile D Ladouceur, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Neil P. Jones, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Silk, University of Pittsburgh

• Sensitivity to Peer Rejection in the Scanner and in Daily Life: Links to Depression Risk - Presenting Author: Jennifer Silk, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Stefanie L Sequeira, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Neil P. Jones, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Erika Forbes, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Cecile D Ladouceur, University of Pittsburgh

• Correspondence of Physical Pain Response and Neural Response to Social Rejection in Adolescent Girls - Presenting Author: Amanda Guyer, University of California, Davis; Non-Presenting Author: Justin Daniel Caouette, Oregon Health & Science University; Non-Presenting Author: Veronika Vilgis, University of California Davis; Non-Presenting Author: Erika Forbes, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Alison Hipwell, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Kate Keenan, University of Chicago

• Altered Neural Connectivity and Cognitive Control to Peer Faces: Links to Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescence - Presenting Author: Eva H. Telzer, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Non-Presenting Author: Susannah Ivory, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Ethan M. McCormick, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill