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Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making.

ABSTRACT: Although actuarial data indicate that risk-taking behavior peaks in adolescence, laboratory evidence for this developmental spike remains scarce. One possible explanation for this incongruity is that in the real world adolescents often have only vague information about the potential consequences of their behavior and the likelihoods of those consequences, whereas in the lab these are often clearly stated. How do adolescents behave under such more realistic conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty? We asked 105 participants aged from 8 to 22 years to make three types of choices: (1) choices between options whose possible outcomes and probabilities were fully described (choices under risk); (2) choices between options whose possible outcomes were described but whose probability information was incomplete (choices under ambiguity), and (3) choices between unknown options whose possible outcomes and probabilities could be explored (choices under uncertainty). Relative to children and adults, two adolescent-specific markers emerged. First, adolescents were more accepting of ambiguity; second, they were also more accepting of uncertainty (as indicated by shorter pre-decisional search). Furthermore, this tolerance of the unknown was associated with motivational, but not cognitive, factors. These findings offer novel insights into the psychology of adolescent risk taking.

SUBMITTER: van den Bos W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5241878 | biostudies-other | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making.

van den Bos Wouter W Hertwig Ralph R

Scientific reports 20170118

Although actuarial data indicate that risk-taking behavior peaks in adolescence, laboratory evidence for this developmental spike remains scarce. One possible explanation for this incongruity is that in the real world adolescents often have only vague information about the potential consequences of their behavior and the likelihoods of those consequences, whereas in the lab these are often clearly stated. How do adolescents behave under such more realistic conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty ...[more]

PMID: 28098227

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Project description:Pubertal development is a potential trigger for increases in risk-taking behaviours during adolescence. Here, we sought to investigate the relationship between puberty and neural activation during risky decision-making in males using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Forty-seven males aged 12.5-14.5 years completed an fMRI risk-taking task (BART) and reported their tendencies for risky decision-making using a self-report questionnaire. Puberty was assessed through self-reported pubertal status and salivary testosterone levels. Testosterone concentration, but not physical pubertal status, was positively correlated with self-reported risk-taking behaviour, while neither was correlated with BART performance. Across the whole sample, participants had greater activation of the bilateral nucleus accumbens and right caudate on trials when they made a successful risky decision compared to trials when they made a safe choice or when their risky decision was unsuccessful. There was a negative correlation between pubertal stage and brain activation during unsuccessful risky decision-making trials compared within unsuccessful control trials. Males at a lower stage of pubertal development showed increased activation in the left insula, right cingulate cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), right putamen and right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) relative to more pubertally mature males during trials when they chose to take a risk and the balloon popped compared to when they watched the computer make an unsuccessful risky decision. Less pubertally mature males also showed greater activation in brain regions including the dmPFC, right temporal and frontal cortices, right OFC, right hippocampus and occipital cortex in unsuccessful risky trials compared to successful risky trials. These results suggest a puberty-related shift in neural activation within key brain regions when processing outcomes of risky decisions, which may reduce their sensitivity to negative feedback, and in turn contribute to increases in adolescent risk-taking behaviours.

Project description:ObjectiveAmong young children excessive externalizing behaviors often predict adolescent conduct and substance use disorders. Adolescents with those disorders show aberrant brain function when choosing between risky or cautious options. We therefore asked whether similarly aberrant brain function during risky decision-making accompanies excessive externalizing behaviors among children, hypothesizing an association between externalizing severity and regional intensity of brain activation during risky decision-making.MethodFifty-eight (58) 9-11 year-old children (both sexes), half community-recruited, half with substance-treated relatives, had parent-rated Child Behavior Checklist Externalizing scores. During fMRI, children repeatedly chose between doing a cautious behavior earning 1 point or a risky behavior that won 5 or lost 10 points. Conservative permutation-based whole-brain regression analyses sought brain regions where, during decision-making, activation significantly associated with externalizing score, with sex, and with their interaction.ResultsBefore risky responses higher externalizing scores were significantly, negatively associated with neural activation (t's: 2.91-4.76) in regions including medial prefrontal cortex (monitors environmental reward-punishment schedules), insula (monitors internal motivating states, e.g., hunger, anxiety), dopaminergic striatal and midbrain structures (anticipate and mediate reward), and cerebellum (where injuries actually induce externalizing behaviors). Before cautious responses there were no significant externalizing:activation associations (except in post hoc exploratory analyses), no significant sex differences in activation, and no significant sex-by-externalizing interactions.ConclusionsAmong children displaying more externalizing behaviors extensive decision-critical brain regions were hypoactive before risky behaviors. Such neural hypoactivity may contribute to the excessive real-life risky decisions that often produce externalizing behaviors. Substance exposure, minimal here, was a very unlikely cause.

Dataset Information

Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making.

Publications

Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making.

Similar Datasets

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