A Replication Study of Neural Correlates of Aggression Following Social Feedback in Middle Childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Abstract

There is much interest in reproducibility in neuroscience, but little is known about replicability of neural activity in childhood. This study examined replicability of social evaluation sensitivity and subsequent aggression, given that social processes are sensitive to individual differences and therefore may be sample specific. We recruited 354 twin participants (7-9 years old) to replicate prior findings by Achterberg et al. (2020). All participants performed the Social Network Aggression Task, in which they received positive, neutral or negative feedback on personal profiles. Subsequently, they could send a noise blast to the peer providing the feedback. We replicated prior behavioral findings, with similar effect sizes: mean noise blast duration was longest after negative feedback and shortest after positive feedback. On the neural level (N=195), four predefined regions of interest showed similar valence effects as previously reported: in the anterior insula (AI), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) increased activation was found during negative compared to neutral feedback and to a lesser extent during positive compared to neutral feedback (only significant in AI). We could not replicate condition differences in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity. Brain-behavior analyses, however, demonstrated a replication of an effect previously reported in 9-11 year old twins: children with higher levels of DLPFC activation showed less aggression following negative relative to neutral feedback. Thus, our study replicates prior research in the salience network of bilateral insula-ACC, but partly replicates DLPFC effects. This may indicate that DLPFC activity in response to social feedback is partly sample specific, consistent with the finding that activity is dependent on behavioral differences. Together, findings demonstrate the presence of a neural regulatory mechanism that is in place already in middle childhood.

Authors

• Simone Dobbelaar, Leiden University
  Presenting Author

• Michelle Achterberg, Erasmus University Rotterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lina van Drunen, Universiteit Leiden
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna Van Duijvenvoorde, Leiden University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eveline A. Crone, Erasmus University
  Non-Presenting Author