A unique adolescent response to reward prediction errors

Nat Neurosci. 2010 Jun;13(6):669-71. doi: 10.1038/nn.2558. Epub 2010 May 16.

Abstract

Previous work has shown that human adolescents may be hypersensitive to rewards, but it is not known which aspect of reward processing is responsible for this. We separated decision value and prediction error signals and found that neural prediction error signals in the striatum peaked in adolescence, whereas neural decision value signals varied depending on how value was modeled. This suggests that heightened dopaminergic prediction error responsivity contributes to adolescent reward seeking.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adolescent Development / physiology
  • Adult
  • Aging / physiology*
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping
  • Child
  • Corpus Striatum / physiology
  • Decision Making / physiology*
  • Feedback, Psychological / physiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Mental Processes / physiology*
  • Probability Learning
  • Reaction Time
  • Reward*
  • Young Adult