title: Eye blink rate predicts reward decisions in adolescents.
abstract: The ventral striatum displays hyper-responsiveness to reward in adolescents relative to other age groups, and animal research on the developmental trajectory of the dopaminergic system suggests that dopamine may underlie adolescent sensitivity to reward. However, practical limitations prevent the direct measurement of dopamine in healthy adolescents. Eye blink rate (EBR) shows promise as a proxy measure of striatal dopamine D2 receptor function. We investigated developmental differences in the relationship between EBR and reward-seeking behavior on a risky decision-making task. Increasing EBR was associated with greater reward maximization on the task for adolescent but not adult participants. Furthermore, adolescents demonstrated greater sensitivity to reward value than adults, as evinced by shifts in decision patterns based on increasing potential reward. These findings suggest that previously observed adolescent behavioral and neural hypersensitivity to reward may in fact be due to greater dopamine receptor activity, as represented by the relationship of blink rate and reward-seeking behavior. They also demonstrate the feasibility and utility of using EBR as a proxy for dopamine in healthy youth in whom direct measurements of dopamine are prohibitively invasive.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Hofstra University, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Barkley-Levenson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA.|Brain Research Institute, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galván
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001519:Behavior; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2 / Q000378:metabolism; D012201:Reward; D012309:Risk-Taking
chemical_list: C581293:DRD2 protein, human; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2