Neurological correlates of reward responding in adolescents with and without externalizing behavior disorders.
Opposing theories of striatal hyper- and hypodopaminergic functioning have been suggested in the pathophysiology of externalizing behavior disorders. To test these competing theories, the authors used functional MRI to evaluate neural activity during a simple reward task in 12- to 16-year-old boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and/or conduct disorder (n = 19) and in controls with no psychiatric condition (n = 11). The task proceeded in blocks during which participants received either (a) monetary incentives for correct responses or (b) no rewards for correct responses. Controls exhibited striatal activation only during reward, shifting to anterior cingulate activation during nonreward. In contrast, externalizing adolescents exhibited striatal activation during both reward and nonreward. Externalizing psychopathology appears to be characterized by deficits in processing the omission of predicted reward, which may render behaviors that are acquired through environmental contingencies difficult to extinguish when those contingencies change.
Gatzke-Kopp
Lisa M
LM
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. lmk18@psu.edu
Beauchaine
Theodore P
TP
Shannon
Katherine E
KE
Chipman
Jane
J
Fleming
Andrew P
AP
Crowell
Sheila E
SE
Liang
Olivia
O
Johnson
L Clark
LC
Aylward
Elizabeth
E
D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012201:Reward; D012919:Social Behavior