McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Psychol Med. 2023 Jun;53(8):3652-3660. doi: 10.1017/S0033291722000307. Epub 2022 Feb 17.
Adolescent antisocial behavior (AB) is a public health concern due to the high financial and social costs of AB on victims and perpetrators. Neural systems involved in reward and loss processing are thought to contribute to AB. However, investigations into these processes are limited: few have considered anticipatory and consummatory components of reward, response to loss, nor whether associations with AB may vary by level of callous-unemotional (CU) traits.
A population-based community sample of 128 predominantly low-income youth (mean age = 15.9 years; 42% male) completed a monetary incentive delay task during fMRI. A multi-informant, multi-method latent variable approach was used to test associations between AB and neural response to reward and loss anticipation and outcome and whether CU traits moderated these associations.
AB was not associated with neural response to reward but was associated with reduced frontoparietal activity during loss outcomes. This association was moderated by CU traits such that individuals with higher levels of AB and CU traits had the largest reductions in frontoparietal activity. Co-occurring AB and CU traits were also associated with increased precuneus response during loss anticipation.
Findings indicate that AB is associated with reduced activity in brain regions involved in cognitive control, attention, and behavior modification during negative outcomes. Moreover, these reductions are most pronounced in youth with co-occurring CU traits. These findings have implications for understanding why adolescents involved in AB continue these behaviors despite severe negative consequences (e.g. incarceration).
青少年反社会行为（AB）是一个公共卫生关注点，因为 AB 对受害者和施害者造成了高昂的经济和社会成本。涉及奖励和损失处理的神经系统被认为对 AB 有贡献。然而，对这些过程的调查有限：很少有研究考虑奖励的预期和消费成分、对损失的反应，也没有研究 AB 与冷酷无情（CU）特征的关联是否因程度而异。
一项基于人群的社区样本包括 128 名主要来自低收入家庭的青少年（平均年龄 = 15.9 岁；42%为男性），他们在 fMRI 期间完成了货币奖励延迟任务。采用多信息、多方法潜在变量方法，测试 AB 与神经对奖励和损失预期及结果的反应之间的关联，以及 CU 特征是否调节这些关联。
AB 与奖励的神经反应无关，但与损失结果时额顶叶活动减少有关。这种关联受到 CU 特征的调节，即 AB 和 CU 特征水平较高的个体额顶叶活动减少最大。同时存在的 AB 和 CU 特征也与损失预期期间楔前叶反应增加有关。
研究结果表明，AB 与参与负面结果的认知控制、注意力和行为矫正的大脑区域活动减少有关。此外，在同时存在 CU 特征的青少年中，这些减少最为明显。这些发现对于理解为什么青少年参与 AB 行为会继续这些行为，尽管会带来严重的负面后果（例如监禁）具有重要意义。
