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Birth order and prosociality in the early adolescent brain

Naohiro Okada1,2, Yu Yamamoto3, Noriaki Yahata4,5,6

  • 1Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan. nokada-tky@g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp.

Scientific Reports
|November 9, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Later-born adolescents show increased prosocial behavior, linked to brain differences in the amygdala. This birth order effect on social development highlights adaptive strategies in stressful environments.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Behavioral Genetics

Background:

  • Birth order is a significant environmental influence on development.
  • Previous research established birth order's link to cognitive intelligence but not social behavior.
  • Neural underpinnings of birth order effects on adolescent social cognition are unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the effect of birth order on prosociality in adolescents.
  • To explore the neural mechanisms, specifically amygdala function and connectivity, underlying birth order-related prosociality.
  • To determine if birth order influences adolescent social development through neurobiological pathways.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a large-scale population-based adolescent cohort (N=3160) to assess birth order and prosociality.
  • Employed neuroimaging techniques on a subset cohort (N=208) to examine amygdala volume.
  • Analyzed amygdala-prefrontal functional connectivity (N=183) with consideration for sex-specific effects.

Main Results:

  • Later-born adolescents exhibited significantly enhanced prosocial behavior.
  • Larger amygdala volume mediated the association between birth order and prosociality.
  • Amygdala-prefrontal functional connectivity showed sex-selective effects, mediating the birth order-prosociality link.

Conclusions:

  • Birth order, a non-genetic factor, influences adolescent social development through distinct neural substrates.
  • Findings suggest that enhanced prosociality in later-born individuals may represent an adaptive strategy for navigating stressful environments.
  • The study elucidates the neurobiological basis of birth order effects on social behavior during a critical developmental period.

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