Giving to others and neural processing during adolescence

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Social Decision-Making

Background:

• Adolescence involves heightened social sensitivity and evolving relationships.
• Prosocial behavior differentiates, with older adolescents favoring known individuals over strangers.
• Neural processing in social decision-making regions may underlie these behavioral changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate age-related changes in prosocial behavior towards caregivers, friends, and strangers.
• To examine neural correlates of social decision-making during adolescence using fMRI.
• To understand the developmental trajectory of giving behavior and its neural underpinnings.

Main Methods:

• 269 adolescents (ages 9-20) completed a monetary giving task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
• Participants decided whether to give money to caregivers, friends, and strangers at personal cost.
• Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals were analyzed in relation to age and recipient type.

Main Results:

• Giving to caregivers and friends increased with age, while giving to strangers remained stable.
• Cognitive control regions (dorsolateral/ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) showed increased activation with age for all giving decisions.
• Reward processing regions (ventral striatum/ventral tegmental area) showed increased activation across ages for all giving.
• Social cognition regions (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, temporal parietal junction, posterior superior temporal sulcus) showed varied or reduced activation.

Conclusions:

• Adolescent prosociality becomes more nuanced, with increased giving to in-group members.
• Brain development supports more complex social decision-making, involving cognitive control and reward systems.
• Findings highlight the interplay between neural maturation and evolving social behaviors in adolescence.