Greimel Ellen, Bakos Sarolta, Landes Iris, Töllner Thomas, Bartling Jürgen, Kohls Gregor, Schulte-Körne Gerd
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany.
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2018 Apr;18(2):296-312. doi: 10.3758/s13415-018-0570-z.
The brain's reward system undergoes major changes during adolescence, and an increased reactivity to social and nonsocial incentives has been described as a typical feature during this transitional period. Little is known whether there are sex differences in the brain's responsiveness to social or monetary incentives during adolescence. The aim of this event-related potential (ERP) study was to compare the neurophysiological underpinnings of monetary and social incentive processing in adolescent boys versus girls. During ERP recording, 38 adolescents (21 females, 17 males; 13-18 years) completed an incentive delay task comprising (a) a reward versus punishment condition and (b) social versus monetary incentives. The stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) was recorded during anticipation of reward and punishment, and the feedback P3 (fP3) along with the feedback-related negativity (FRN) after reward/punishment delivery. During anticipation of social punishment, adolescent boys compared with girls exhibited a reduced SPN. After delivery, male adolescents exhibited higher fP3 amplitudes to monetary compared with social incentives, whereas fP3 amplitudes in girls were comparable across incentive types. Moreover, whereas in boys fP3 responses were higher in rewards than in punishment trials, no such difference was evident in girls. The results indicate that adolescent boys show a reduced neural responsivity in the prospect of social punishment. Moreover, the findings imply that, once the incentive is obtained, adolescent boys attribute a relatively enhanced motivational significance to monetary incentives and show a relative hyposensitivity to punishment. The findings might contribute to our understanding of sex-specific vulnerabilities to problem behaviors related to incentive processing during adolescence.
大脑的奖励系统在青春期会经历重大变化，对社交和非社交刺激反应性增强被描述为这一过渡时期的典型特征。对于青春期大脑对社交或金钱刺激的反应是否存在性别差异，目前知之甚少。这项事件相关电位（ERP）研究的目的是比较青少年男孩和女孩在处理金钱和社交刺激时的神经生理学基础。在ERP记录过程中，38名青少年（21名女性，17名男性；年龄在13 - 18岁之间）完成了一项刺激延迟任务，该任务包括（a）奖励与惩罚条件，以及（b）社交与金钱刺激。在预期奖励和惩罚时记录刺激前负波（SPN），在奖励/惩罚交付后记录反馈P3（fP3）以及反馈相关负波（FRN）。在预期社交惩罚时，与女孩相比，青少年男孩的SPN降低。交付后，与社交刺激相比，男性青少年对金钱刺激表现出更高的fP3波幅，而女孩的fP3波幅在不同刺激类型之间相当。此外，男孩在奖励试验中的fP3反应高于惩罚试验，而女孩则没有这种差异。结果表明，青少年男孩在面临社交惩罚时神经反应性降低。此外，研究结果表明，一旦获得刺激，青少年男孩会将相对增强的动机意义赋予金钱刺激，并对惩罚表现出相对低敏感性。这些发现可能有助于我们理解青春期与刺激处理相关的问题行为的性别特异性易感性。
