Typical adolescent behaviour such as increased risk-taking and novelty-seeking is probably related to developmental changes in the brain reward system. This functional MRI study investigated how brain activation related to two components of reward processing (Reward Anticipation and Reward Outcome) changes with age in a sample of 39 children, adolescents and young adults aged 10-25. Our data revealed age-related changes in brain activity during both components of reward processing. Activation related to Reward Anticipation increased with age, while activation related to Reward Outcome decreased in various regions of the reward network. This shift from outcome to anticipation was confirmed by subsequent analyses showing positive correlations between age and the difference in activation between Reward Anticipation and Reward Outcome. The shift was predominantly present in striatal regions and was accompanied by a significant effect of age on behaviour, with older participants showing more response speeding on potentially rewarding trials than younger participants. This study provides evidence for functional changes in the reward system which may underlie typical adolescent behaviour.
Keywords: Adolescence; Development; Nucleus accumbens; Reward; Striatum; fMRI.
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