The influence of monetary reward on proactive and reactive control in adolescent males

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Adolescence is marked by increased reward-seeking, which can alter cognitive control abilities. Cognitive control involves monitoring for salient stimuli and recruiting control to adapt behavior advantageously to reach a specific goal. Proactive control is engaged after an informative cue in preparation for an upcoming stimulus, while reactive control is employed in the moment, after events have already occurred. Oscillations in the theta frequency (4-8Hz) during both cue presentation and stimulus presentation are implicated in proactive and reactive control processes. The work presented here will examine theta oscillations during both proactive and reactive control. The goal of the current study is to elucidate reward’s influence on both proactive and reactive control during adolescence.
To accomplish this goal, 68 (Mean age = 13.61, SD = 2.52, Range = 9-17) male adolescents completed a rewarded cued flanker paradigm while electroencephalogram (EEG) was collected. Cognitive control was measured by the flanker RT interference (incongruent-congruent trials) for proactive and reactive, as well as rewarded and non-rewarded conditions separately – with a larger value indicating worse cognitive control. Theta power and connectivity (inter-channel phase synchrony; ICPS), both implicated in cognitive control, were quantified after cues and flanker stimuli to understand their role during reward-cognitive control interactions.
Results showed that reward enhanced reactive control, t(196.90)=-10.89 p<0.001; however, reward hindered proactive control in this sample of adolescent males, t(196.80)=3.36, p<0.001 (Figure 1). Further, this difference in reward’s influence on proactive and reactive control marginally differed by age, b=-1.00, t(195.96)= -1.98, p=0.05. Reward was more impactful in reducing reactive interference in younger adolescents, b=1.99, t(64.55)= 2.53, p=0.01. On proactive trials, reward-related increases in cue-locked theta power predicted worse reward-related control, b=12.66, p=0.03. In contrast, again on proactive trials, increases in reward-related stimulus-locked theta ICPS were associated with better performance on rewarded trials, b=-259.21, p<0.001. These effects were consistent throughout adolescence with no age-related differences.
This pattern of results show that reward differentially impacted proactive and reactive control in adolescence and increased theta power to rewarded informative cues is associated with worse cognitive control. These findings have implications for understanding the increased risk-taking behaviors observed during adolescence.

Authors

• Maureen Bowers, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Santiago Morales, University of Southern California
  Non-Presenting Author

• George A Buzzell, Florida International University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nathan A Fox, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author