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The transition from childhood to adolescence is marked by a general decrease in amygdala reactivity and an
Jennifer A Silvers1, Catherine Insel2, Alisa Powers3
1Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States.
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
|July 23, 2016
Summary
Children show heightened sensitivity to emotional and neutral stimuli, with adolescent brain development shifting emotional processing towards cognitive terms. This study explores age-related changes in affective responses and brain activity.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Affective Science
Background:
- Emotional development involves age-related changes in brain regions like the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC).
- Research is exploring whether these brain changes are specific to emotional stimuli or also affect responses to neutral stimuli.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-specific effects on affective responses and brain activity (amygdala and PFC) to aversive and neutral stimuli.
- To determine if developmental changes in the amygdala and PFC are general or specific to affective processing.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan 112 participants aged 6 to 23 years.
- Participants viewed aversive and neutral images and reported their affective responses.
Main Results:
- All participants showed greater negative affect and amygdala responses to aversive versus neutral images.
- Children exhibited higher sensitivity to both neutral and aversive stimuli.
- A shift from ventral to dorsal medial prefrontal cortex activity occurred during adolescence for aversive, but not neutral, stimuli.
Conclusions:
- Adolescence involves a developmental shift in emotional processing, moving towards more cognitive representations.
- These findings suggest that developmental changes in the PFC influence how emotional events are represented cognitively.
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