Strategic social decision making undergoes significant changes in typically developing and autistic early adolescents.

Information sampling about others' trustworthiness prior to cooperation allows humans to minimize the risk of exploitation. Here, we examined whether early adolescence or preadolescence, a stage defined as in between childhood and adolescence, is a significant developmental period for strategic social decisions. We also sought to characterize differences between autistic children and their typically developing (TD) peers. TD (N = 48) and autistic (N = 56) 8- to 12-year-olds played an online information sampling trust game. While both groups adapted their information sampling and cooperation to the various trustworthiness levels of the trustees, groups differed in how age and social skills modulated task behavior. In the TD group social skills were a stronger overall predictor of task behavior. In the autistic group, age was a stronger predictor and interacted with social skills. Computational modeling revealed that both groups used the same heuristic information sampling strategy-albeit older TD children were more efficient as reflected by decreasing decision noise with age. Autistic children had lower prior beliefs about the trustee's trustworthiness compared to TD children. These lower priors indicate that children believed the trustees to be less trustworthy. Lower priors scaled with lower social skills across groups. Notably, groups did not differ in prior uncertainty, meaning that the priors of TD and autistic children were equally strong. Taken together, we found significant development in information sampling and cooperation in early adolescence and nuanced differences between TD and autistic children. Our study highlights the importance of deep phenotyping of children including clinical measures, behavioral experiments and computational modeling. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We specified how early adolescents with and without an autism diagnosis sampled information about their interaction partners and made cooperation decisions in a strategic game. Early adolescence is a significant developmental period for strategic decision making, marked by significant changes in information sampling efficiency and adaptivity to the partner's behavior. Autistic and non-autistic groups differed in how age and social skills modulated task behavior; in non-autistic children behavior was more indicative of overall social skills. Computational modeling revealed differences between autistic and non-autistic groups in their initial beliefs about cooperation partners; autistic children expected their partners to be less trustworthy.

Expecting the unexpected: a review of learning under uncertainty across development.

Many of our decisions take place under uncertainty. To successfully navigate the environment, individuals need to estimate the degree of uncertainty and adapt their behaviors accordingly by learning from experiences. However, uncertainty is a broad construct and distinct types of uncertainty may differentially influence our learning. We provide a semi-systematic review to illustrate cognitive and neurobiological processes involved in learning under two types of uncertainty: learning in environments with stochastic outcomes, and with volatile outcomes. We specifically reviewed studies (N = 26 studies) that included an adolescent population, because adolescence is a period in life characterized by heightened exploration and learning, as well as heightened uncertainty due to experiencing many new, often social, environments. Until now, reviews have not comprehensively compared learning under distinct types of uncertainties in this age range. Our main findings show that although the overall developmental patterns were mixed, most studies indicate that learning from stochastic outcomes, as indicated by increased accuracy in performance, improved with age. We also found that adolescents tended to have an advantage compared with adults and children when learning from volatile outcomes. We discuss potential mechanisms explaining these age-related differences and conclude by outlining future research directions.

A scarcity mindset alters neural processing underlying consumer decision making.

Not having enough of what one needs has long been shown to have detrimental consequences for decision making. Recent work suggests that the experience of insufficient resources can create a "scarcity" mindset; increasing attention toward the scarce resource itself, but at the cost of attention for unrelated aspects. To investigate the effects of a scarcity mindset on consumer choice behavior, as well as its underlying neural mechanisms, we used an experimental manipulation to induce both a scarcity and an abundance mindset within participants and examined the effects of both mindsets on participants' willingness to pay for familiar food items while being scanned using fMRI. Results demonstrated that a scarcity mindset affects neural mechanisms related to consumer decision making. When in a scarcity mindset compared with an abundance mindset, participants had increased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, a region often implicated in valuation processes. Moreover, again compared with abundance, a scarcity mindset decreased activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area well known for its role in goal-directed choice. This effect was predominant in the group of participants who experienced scarcity following abundance, suggesting that the effects of scarcity are largest when they are compared with previous situations when resources were plentiful. More broadly, these data suggest a potential neural locus for a scarcity mindset and demonstrate how these changes in brain activity might underlie goal-directed decision making.

Decision-making in social contexts in youth with ADHD.

This study examined reward-related decision-making in children and adolescents with ADHD in a social context, using economic games. We furthermore examined the role of individual differences in reward-related decision-making, specifically, the roles of reward sensitivity and prosocial skills. Children and adolescents (9-17 years) with ADHD-combined subtype (n = 29; 20 boys) and healthy controls (n = 38; 20 boys) completed the ultimatum game and dictator game as measures of reward-related decision-making in social contexts. Prosocial skills were measured with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The ADHD group had a larger discrepancy between ultimatum game and dictator game offers than controls, indicating strategic rather than fairness driven decisions. This finding was supported by self-reports showing fewer individuals with ADHD than controls who considered fairness as motive for the decisions. Perspective taking or empathic concern did not differ between groups and was not significantly associated with offers. In conclusion, the results suggest that rather than a failure to understand the perspective of others, children and adolescents with ADHD were less motivated by fairness than controls in simple social situations. Results encourage the use of economic games in ADHD research.

Understanding the Dynamics of the Developing Adolescent Brain Through Team Science.

One of the major goals for research on adolescent development is to identify the optimal conditions for adolescents to grow up in a complex social world and to understand individual differences in these trajectories. Based on influential theoretical and empirical work in this field, achieving this goal requires a detailed understanding of the social context in which neural and behavioral development takes place, along with longitudinal measurements at multiple levels (e.g., genetic, hormonal, neural, behavioral). In this perspectives article, we highlight the promising role of team science in achieving this goal. To illustrate our point, we describe meso (peer relations) and micro (social learning) approaches to understand social development in adolescence as crucial aspects of adolescent mental health. Finally, we provide an overview of how our team has extended our collaborations beyond scientific partners to multiple societal partners for the purpose of informing and including policymakers, education and health professionals, as well as adolescents themselves when conducting and communicating research.

Heightened neural sensitivity to social exclusion in boys with a history of low peer preference during primary school.

Peer preference among classmates is a highly influential factor in children's social development and not being preferred by peers has long-term consequences for children's developmental outcomes. However, little is known about how a history of low peer preference during primary school is associated with neural responses to a new social exclusion experience in childhood. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined self-reported social distress and neural responses to social exclusion using the Cyberball paradigm in primary school boys (Mage = 10.40 years) with a history of low (n = 27) versus high peer preference (n = 28). Boys were selected from a longitudinal classroom-based study in which children's peer social preferences were assessed in three consecutive years prior to this study. Neuroimaging results showed that low peer preferred boys exhibited increased activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex during early social exclusion relative to later social exclusion experiences as compared to high peer preferred boys. Increased neural activity was not accompanied by higher self-reported levels of social distress during social exclusion in low versus high peer preferred children. Findings of this study may provide insight into the neural processes associated with real-life peer experiences in children attending primary school.

Heightened neural sensitivity to social exclusion in boys with a history of low peer preference during primary school.

Peer preference among classmates is a highly influential factor in children's social development and not being preferred by peers has long-term consequences for children's developmental outcomes. However, little is known about how a history of low peer preference during primary school is associated with neural responses to a new social exclusion experience in childhood. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined self-reported social distress and neural responses to social exclusion using the Cyberball paradigm in primary school boys (Mage = 10.40 years) with a history of low (n = 27) versus high peer preference (n = 28). Boys were selected from a longitudinal classroom-based study in which children's peer social preferences were assessed in three consecutive years prior to this study. Neuroimaging results showed that low peer preferred boys exhibited increased activation in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right supramarginal gyrus during social exclusion as compared to high peer preferred boys. Increased neural activity was not accompanied by higher self-reported levels of social distress during social exclusion in low versus high peer preferred boys. Findings of this study may provide insight into the neural processes associated with real-life peer experiences in children attending primary school.

Waiting and working for rewards: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is associated with steeper delay discounting linked to amygdala activation, but not with steeper effort discounting.

OBJECTIVE: Children and adolescents with ADHD have a relatively strong preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards (steep delay discounting). It is unknown whether such steep discounting of rewards is specific for delayed rewards, i.e., supporting the delay aversion account of ADHD, or whether it is also present for effortful rewards, i.e., representing general reward insensitivity. Therefore, this study examined behavioral and BOLD responses during delay discounting (DD) and effort discounting (ED) in ADHD. METHOD: Thirty adolescents with ADHD and 28 controls (12-17 years) were scanned while performing a DD-ED task (fMRI findings were based on 21 and 25 participants, respectively). During DD, participants were presented with a series of choices between a small reward delivered immediately and a larger reward delivered after 5-25s. During ED, participants were presented with choices between a small reward that was delivered after exerting 15% of their maximal hand grip strength and a larger reward delivered after exerting 30-90% of their strength. RESULTS: Analyses on the subjective values of delayed and effortful rewards and on the Area Under the discounting Curves (AUCs) indicated that adolescents with ADHD showed steeper discounting than controls for DD, but not for ED. This was accompanied by a slightly stronger delay dose-response relationship in the amygdala for adolescents with ADHD who reported to be more delay averse in daily life. CONCLUSION: Together, these results-steeper DD in the ADHD group and a stronger delay dose-response relationship in the amygdala, while no evidence for group differences in ED was found-support the delay aversion account of ADHD.

Does an attention bias to appetitive and aversive words modulate interference control in youth with ADHD?

Interference control refers to the ability to selectively attend to certain information while ignoring distracting information. This ability can vary as a function of distractor relevance. Distractors that are particularly relevant to an individual may attract more attention than less relevant distractors. This is referred to as attention bias. Weak interference control and altered reward sensitivity are both important features of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, interference control is typically studied in isolation. This study integrates both. Youths (aged 9 to 17 years) with ADHD (n = 37, 25 boys) and typically-developing controls (n = 38, 20 boys) completed a Stroop task using appetitive words and matched neutral words to assess whether appetitive distractors diminished interference control more in youths with ADHD than controls. In order to test for specificity, aversive words were also included. As expected, appetitive words disrupted interference control but this effect was not stronger for youths with ADHD than the controls. Aversive words, on the other hand, facilitated interference control. Dimensional analyses revealed that this facilitation effect increased substantially as a function of ADHD symptom severity. Possible mechanisms for this effect include up-regulation of interference control as a function of induced negative mood, or as a function of increased effort. In conclusion, appetitive words do not lead to worse interference control in youths with ADHD compared with controls. Interference control was modulated in a valence-specific manner, concurrent with mood-induced effects on cognitive control.

Neural responses to social exclusion in adolescents: Effects of peer status.

We examined whether adolescents' neural responses to social exclusion and inclusion are influenced by their own popularity and acceptance and by the popularity of their excluders and includers. Accepted adolescents are highly prosocial. In contrast, popular adolescents, who are central and influential, show prosocial as well as antisocial behaviors, such as peer exclusion. Fifty-two 12-16 year-old adolescents underwent an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan while playing the ball-tossing game Cyberball in which they received or did not receive the ball from other virtual players. The other virtual players were described as either highly popular or average in popularity. Participants' own popularity and acceptance were assessed with peer nominations at school (n = 31). Participants' acceptance was positively correlated with activity of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during exclusion. Participants' popularity was positively associated with ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex activity during exclusion, but only when the excluders were popular virtual players. Participants showed increased rostral ACC activation to inclusion by players who were average in popularity. These findings indicate that peer status plays an important role in adolescents' neural processing of social exclusion and inclusion. Moreover, these findings underscore that popularity and acceptance are distinct types of high peer status in adolescence, with not only distinct behavioral correlates, but also distinct neural correlates.

The interaction between reinforcement and inhibitory control in ADHD: A review and research guidelines.

The majority of studies which have aimed to identify cognitive and motivational factors at play in ADHD have investigated cognitive-control processes and reinforcement effects in isolation. Notably, in recent years, the interaction between these two processes has been increasingly examined. Here, we aimed to provide a comprehensive and critical review of the behavioral and functional neuroimaging studies that have investigated reinforcement effects on inhibitory control in ADHD. The findings of our meta-analyses show that reinforcement can normalize inhibitory control in children and adolescents with ADHD to the baseline level of controls. Furthermore, the data suggests that inhibitory control may improve to a larger extent in youth with ADHD compared with controls, as a function of reinforcement. Based on (1) this review and meta-analyses, (2) functional neuroimaging studies in healthy populations, and (3) existing ADHD and neurobiological models of dual processes, we propose specific guidelines for future research, which are anticipated to further elucidate processes underlying impulsive behavior associated with ADHD.

Ventral striatal hyperconnectivity during rewarded interference control in adolescents with ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by cognitive deficits (e.g., interference control) and altered reward processing. Cognitive control is influenced by incentive motivation and according to current theoretical models, ADHD is associated with abnormal interactions between incentive motivation and cognitive control. However, the neural mechanisms by which reward modulates cognitive control in individuals with ADHD are unknown. METHOD: We used event-related functional resonance imaging (fMRI) to study neural responses during a rewarded Stroop color-word task in adolescents (14-17 years) with ADHD (n = 25; 19 boys) and healthy controls (n = 33; 22 boys). RESULTS: Adolescents with ADHD showed increased reward signaling within the superior frontal gyrus and ventral striatum (VS) relative to controls. Importantly, functional connectivity analyses revealed a hyperconnectivity between VS and motor control regions in the ADHD group, as a function of reward-cognitive control integration. Connectivity was associated with performance improvement in controls but not in the ADHD group, suggesting inefficient connectivity. CONCLUSION: Adolescents with ADHD show increased neural sensitivity to rewards and its interactions with interference control in VS and motor regions, respectively. The findings support theoretical models of altered reward-cognitive control integration in individuals with ADHD.