Revisiting the Neural Architecture of Adolescent Decision-Making: Univariate and Multivariate Evidence for System-Based Models

• Published in: The Journal of neuroscience 2021-07, Vol.41 (28), p.6006-6017
• Main Authors: Guassi Moreira, João F, Méndez Leal, Adriana S, Waizman, Yael H, Saragosa-Harris, Natalie, Ninova, Emilia, Silvers, Jennifer A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescents; Brain mapping; Cognitive ability; Crime; Decision making; Decision theory; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Judicial system; Multivariate analysis; Predictive control; Public health; Reinforcement; Risk; Risk taking
• ISSN: 0270-6474; 1529-2401
• DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3182-20.2021

Understanding adolescent decision-making is significant for informing basic models of neurodevelopment as well as for the domains of public health and criminal justice. System-based theories posit that adolescent decision-making is guided by activity amongst reward and control processes. While successful at explaining behavior, system-based theories have received inconsistent support at the neural level, perhaps because of methodological limitations. Here, we used two complementary approaches to overcome said limitations and rigorously evaluate system-based models. Using decision-level modeling of fMRI data from a risk-taking task in a sample of 2000+ decisions across 51 human adolescents (25 females, mean age = 15.00 years), we find support for system-based theories of decision-making. Neural activity in lateral prefrontal cortex and a multivariate pattern of cognitive control both predicted a reduced likelihood of risk-taking, whereas increased activity in the nucleus accumbens predicted a greater likelihood of risk-taking. Interactions between decision-level brain activity and age were not observed. These results garner support for system-based accounts of adolescent decision-making behavior. Adolescent decision-making behavior is of great import for basic science, and carries equally consequential implications for public health and criminal justice. While dominant psychological theories seeking to explain adolescent decision-making have found empirical support, their neuroscientific implementations have received inconsistent support. This may be partly due to statistical approaches employed by prior neuroimaging studies of system-based theories. We used brain modeling-an approach that predicts behavior from brain activity-of univariate and multivariate neural activity metrics to better understand how neural components of psychological systems guide decision behavior in adolescents. We found broad support for system-based theories such that neural systems involved in cognitive control predicted a reduced likelihood to make risky decisions, whereas value-based systems predicted greater risk-taking propensity.