Executive functioning moderates neural reward processing in youth
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Executive functioning moderates neural reward processing in youth Maria Kryza-Lacombe 1 & Isaac R. Christian 2 & Michael T. Liuzzi 2 & Cassidy Owen 2 & Brianna Hernandez 2 & Lea R. Dougherty 3 & Jillian Lee Wiggins 1,2 Accepted: 9 November 2020 # The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2020
Abstract Although executive functioning has traditionally been studied in “cool” settings removed from emotional contexts, it is highly relevant in “hot” emotionally salient settings such as reward processing. Furthermore, brain structures related to “cool” executive functioning and “hot” reward-related processes develop simultaneously, yet little is known about how executive functioning modulates neural processes related to reward processing during adolescence, a period of time when these systems are still developing. The present study examined how performance on “cool” behavioral executive functioning measures moderates neural reward processing. Youths (N = 43, Mage = 13.74 years, SD = 1.81 years) completed a child-friendly monetary incentive delay task during fMRI acquisition that captures neural responses to reward anticipation and to reward receipt and omission. Performance on inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility measures, captured outside the scanner, was used to predict brain activation and seed-based connectivity (ventral striatum and amygdala). Across analyses, we found that executive functioning moderated youths’ neural responses during both reward anticipation and performance feedback, predominantly with respect to amygdala connectivity with prefrontal/frontal and temporal structures, supporting previous theoretical models of brain development during adolescence. Overall, youths with worse executive functioning had more pronounced differences in neural activation and connectivity between task conditions compared with youths with better executive functioning. This study contributes to elucidating the relationship between “cool” and “hot” processes and our findings demonstrate that simple executive functioning skills moderate more complex processes that involve incorporation of numerous skills in an emotionally salient context, such as reward processing. Keywords Reward processing . fMRI . Children . Adolescents . Executive functioning
Executive functioning is a set of skills related to the ability to voluntarily act in line with one’s internal goals (Crone & Steinbeis, 2017; Luna, 2009; Miller & Cohen, 2001; Miyake & Friedman, 2012). Better executive functioning in youths is associated with many broad short-term and long-term positive outcomes, including mental and physical health (Diamond,
* Maria Kryza-Lacombe [email protected] 1
San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego, Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, 6363 Alvarado Ct., Ste 103, San Diego, CA 92120, USA
2
Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA
3
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, San Diego, CA, USA
2013; Moffitt et al., 2011; Wasserman & Wasserman, 2013), and may help
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