Neural Foundations Supporting Prosocial Behaviors: A Scoping Review of EEG/ERP Evidence During Adolescence and...

Adolescence is a particularly important period for prosocial development given the foundational changes that occur in social and reward neural systems. Despite the temporal and developmental advantages of electroencephalography (EEG), no studies have compiled and analyzed existing EEG evidence of adolescent prosocial development. The current scoping review characterized how EEG methods are being used to study the rapid neural processes that underlie prosocial behaviors in early, middle, and late adolescence/emerging adulthood. Additionally, we evaluated the ecological validity and developmental appropriateness of the experimental paradigms included in this review and summarized neural correlates using a multidimensional developmental model. On September 13, 2025, two electronic databases were searched to identify studies that used traditional EEG methods to record state-level prosocial behaviors in participants aged 10 to 25 years old. Thirty-one studies were included in this review. Prosocial behavior themes measured across these studies included cooperation (32%), fairness (16%), giving (32%), and helping (19%). Studies commonly focused on college-aged samples (94%) and evaluated event-related potentials (81%), with three studies including additional spectral analyses (i.e., beta, delta, and theta). Two studies focused solely on spectral oscillations (i.e., beta, theta). P3 (84%) and FRN (55%) components were most frequently examined across reviewed studies and prosocial domains. Overall, results highlight a need for EEG studies to examine prosocial behaviors in earlier stages of adolescence, to consider the multidimensional nature of prosocial behaviors, and to begin evaluating prosocial behaviors that are more relevant to adolescents' day-to-day lives.