Neural tracking of social hierarchies in adolescents’ real-world social networks

• In Event: How adolescents’ behaviors and brain shape and are shaped by their peer social networks

Abstract

Background: The current study investigates how the brain of adolescents spontaneously represent their social hierarchies. Adolescence is marked by a social reorientation from parents toward peers, which manifests in various peer-based social networks. Within social networks, peer groups become differentiated by peer status, which ultimately forms peer-based social hierarchies (LaFontana & Cillessen, 2010). This social milieu provides a critical developmental context for youths to practice social behaviors (e.g., cooperation and competition) and engage in self-exploration through social comparison. An emerging body of work suggests that adolescents are hyper-attuned to social hierarchies and deploy greater visual attention to individuals with higher peer status (Lunn et al., 2021). However, no research to date has examined the neural processes that allow youths to represent varying levels of peer statuses in their social networks. We hypothesized that brain systems involved in face perception and social cognition would be sensitive to social hierarchies in adolescents, supporting teens’ social navigation in real-world social networks.
Methods: To achieve our goal, we examined the neural tracking of social hierarchies in adolescents’ real-world social networks using a combination of sociometric nominations and neuroimaging techniques. Adolescent participants completed peer sociometric nominations of their entire grade at school, and a subset of participants (N = 120, Mage = 12.97 years) completed a neuroimaging Classmates task in which they viewed the faces of high-status and low-status peers from their social networks (see Figure 1). Absolute values of the social preference scores (i.e., likability) obtained from the sociometric nominations were entered as parametric modulators in whole-brain neuroimaging analyses to examine how the brain tracks high- and low-status peers.
Results: Whole-brain and conjunction analyses revealed that subregions within fusiform face area (i.e., FFA1 and FFA2) were both activated while adolescents tracked high-status and low-status peers (see Figure 2.A). Whole-brain analysis contrasting high- to low-status peers showed that the neural tracking of high-status peers specifically engaged the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in adolescents (see Figure 2.B).
Conclusion: This is the first study to examine the neural mechanisms that underpin youths’ awareness of emerging peer-based social hierarchies. Our findings suggest two possible neuropsychological processes jointly represent the peer-based social hierarchies in adolescents: (1) within the FFA, the early visual system represents both high- and low-status peers, which may be socially and developmentally adaptive for teens’ social navigation; (2) within mPFC, neural sensitivity to high- but not low-status peers allows youths to represent those peers who are central in social networks. The role of this region in social cognition and behavioral control may shed light on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying peer influence in adolescents. Our study findings make a novel and significant contribution to the study of adolescent brain development, social development, peer relationship, and research on peer influence.

Authors

• Junqiang Dai, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Nathan Jorgensen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Natasha Duell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Jimmy Capella, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Maria Maza, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Seh-Joo Kwon, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Mitchell J Prinstein, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Kristen A Lindquist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Eva H Telzer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill