title: Risk taking and the adolescent reward system: a potential common link to substance abuse.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Increased risk-taking behavior has been associated with addiction, a disorder also linked to abnormalities in reward processing. Specifically, an attenuated response of reward-related areas (e.g., the ventral striatum) to nondrug reward cues has been reported in addiction. One unanswered question is whether risk-taking preference is associated with striatal reward processing in the absence of substance abuse.
  
  
  METHODS
  Functional and structural MRI was performed in 266 healthy young adolescents and in 31 adolescents reporting potentially problematic substance use. Activation during reward anticipation (using the monetary incentive delay task) and to gray matter density were measured. Risk-taking bias was assessed by the Cambridge Gamble Task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  With increasing risk-taking bias, the ventral striatum showed decreased activation bilaterally during reward anticipation. Voxel-based morphometry showed that greater risk-taking bias was also associated with and partially mediated by lower gray matter density in the same structure. The decreased activation was also observed when participants with virtually any substance use were excluded. The group with potentially problematic substance use showed greater risk taking as well as lower striatal activation relative to matched comparison subjects from the main sample.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Risk taking and functional and structural properties of the reward system in adolescents are strongly linked prior to a possible onset of substance abuse, emphasizing their potential role in the predisposition to drug abuse.
authors.affiliation: University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. s.schneider@uke.uni-hamburg.de
authors.forename: Sophia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.forename: Uli
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bromberg
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brassen
authors.forename: Stephan F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Miedl
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Banaschewski
authors.forename: Gareth J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Conrod
authors.forename: Herta
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Flor
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Garavan
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heinz
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ittermann
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lathrop
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Loth
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Martinot
authors.forename: Frauke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nees
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Paus
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rietschel
authors.forename: Trevor W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: Michael N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Smolka
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Spanagel
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ströhle
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Struve
authors.forename: Gunter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schumann
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Büchel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D005715:Gambling / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012201:Reward; D012309:Risk-Taking; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*