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The amygdala is central to the pathophysiology of many psychiatric illnesses. An imprecise understanding of how the amygdala fits into the larger network organization of the human brain, however, limits our ability to create models of dysfunction in individual patients to guide personalized treatment. Therefore, we investigated the position of the amygdala and its functional subdivisions within the network organization of the brain in 10 highly sampled individuals (5 h of fMRI data per person). We characterized three functional subdivisions within the amygdala of each individual. We discovered that one subdivision is preferentially correlated with the default mode network; a second is preferentially correlated with the dorsal attention and fronto-parietal networks; and third subdivision does not have any networks to which it is preferentially correlated relative to the other two subdivisions. All three subdivisions are positively correlated with ventral attention and somatomotor networks and negatively correlated with salience and cinguloopercular networks. These observations were replicated in an independent group dataset of 120 individuals. We also found substantial across-subject variation in the distribution and magnitude of amygdala functional connectivity with the cerebral cortex that related to individual differences in the stereotactic locations both of amygdala subdivisions and of cortical functional brain networks. Finally, using lag analyses, we found consistent temporal ordering of fMRI signals in the cortex relative to amygdala subdivisions. Altogether, this work provides a detailed framework of amygdala–cortical interactions that can be used as a foundation for models relating aberrations in amygdala connectivity to psychiatric symptoms in individual patients.

Decisions to trust people with whom we have no personal history can be based on their social reputation—a product of what we can observe about them (their appearance, social group membership, etc.)—and our own beliefs. The striatum and amygdala have been identified as regions of the brain involved in trust decisions and trustworthiness estimation, respectively. However, it is unknown whether social reputation based on group membership modulates the involvement of these regions during trust decisions. To investigate this, we examined blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) activity while participants completed a series of single-shot trust game interactions with real partners of varying races. At the time of choice, baseline BOLD responses in the striatum correlated with individuals' trust bias—that is, the overall disparity in decisions to trust Black versus White partners. BOLD signal in the striatum was higher when deciding to trust partners from the race group that the individual participant considered less trustworthy overall. In contrast, activation of the amygdala showed greater BOLD responses to Black versus White partners that scaled with the amount invested. These results suggest that the amygdala may represent emotionally relevant social group information as a subset of the general detection function it serves, whereas the striatum is involved in representing race-based reputations that shape trust decisions.

Given the spike in risky behaviors that accompanies adolescence, the need to examine the processes and contextual factors that influence disinhibition for adolescents is of great import. Using an emotionally salient cognitive control task, we examined how socially appetitive and aversive cues differentially affect behavioral inhibition across development. In Study 1 ( N = 94, ages 8–30 years), we found that socially appetitive cues were particularly detrimental to inhibition, a finding driven by our adolescent sample. In Study 2 ( N = 35, ages 12–17 years), we sought to explore the neural processes implicated in suboptimal inhibition during adolescence. Replicating our behavioral findings from Study 1, socially appetitive cues again caused detriments to inhibition compared with socially aversive cues. At the neural level, increased activation in affective regions (amygdala and ventral striatum) while viewing socially appetitive relative to socially aversive cues was correlated with increases in disinhibition. Furthermore, both whole-brain and functional connectivity analyses suggest recruitment of affective and social-detection networks (fusiform, bilateral temporoparietal junction) may account for the increased focus on appetitive relative to aversive cues. Together, our findings suggest that adolescents show detriments in inhibition to socially appetitive contexts, which is related to increased recruitment of affective and social processing neural regions.

Preliminary work suggests anxiety moderates the relationship between irritability and bullying. As anxiety increases, the link between irritability and perpetration decreases. We hypothesize that any moderation effect of anxiety is driven by social anxiety symptoms. We sought to explicate the moderating effect of anxiety, while clarifying relations to other aggressive behaviors. A sample of adolescents ( = 169, mean = 12.42 years of age) were assessed using clinician rated assessments of anxiety, parent reports of irritability and bullying behaviors (perpetration, generalized aggression, and victimization). Correlations assessed zero-order relations between variables, and regression-based moderation analyses were used to test interactions. Johnson-Neyman methods were used to represent significant interactions. Irritability was significantly related to bullying ( = .403, < .001). Social, but not generalized, anxiety symptoms significantly moderated the effect of irritability on bully perpetration ( (160) = -2.94, = -.01, = .0038, Δ = .0229, (1, 160) = 8.635). As social anxiety symptoms increase, the link between irritability and perpetration decreases. Understanding how psychopathology interacts with social behaviors is of great importance. Higher social anxiety is linked to reduced relations between irritability and bullying; however, the link between irritability and other aggression remains positive. Comprehensively assessing how treatment of psychopathology impacts social behaviors may improve future intervention.

Abstract While much of the prior work examining the behavioural and neural mechanisms of adolescent risk taking has focused on community samples, less is known about whether these mechanisms apply to adolescents engaging in high levels of risky behaviour. The current study examines behavioural and neural differences between adolescents with (N = 24) and without (N = 35) a history of misconduct using a risk perception questionnaire and risk-taking fMRI task. Adolescents with a history of misconduct perceived fewer negative consequences of risk relative to positive consequences and exhibited altered neural tracking of risk and reward in the nucleus accumbens. Specifically, adolescents with a history of misconduct displayed relatively diminished increases in nucleus accumbens tracking of increasing risk level, potentially suggesting habituation to increasing risk level, and exhibited hypersensitivity to small rewards. These findings suggest that adolescents with a history of misconduct process risk and reward differently, which may underlie their increased risky behaviour.

Temper tantrums are sudden, overt negative emotional displays that are disproportionate to the eliciting event. Research supports that severe temper tantrums during the preschool period are associated with preschool psychopathology, but few studies have identified which characteristics of preschool tantrums are predictive of distal psychopathological outcomes in later childhood and adolescence. To examine this question, we used a prospective, longitudinal dataset enriched for early psychopathology. Participants ( N = 299) included 3-to 6-year-old children (47.8% female) assessed for tantrums and early childhood psychopathology using diagnostic interviews and then continually assessed using diagnostic interviews over 10 subsequent time points throughout childhood and adolescence. We identified two unique groupings of tantrum behaviors: aggression towards others/objects (e.g., hitting others) and aggression towards self (e.g., hitting self). While both types of tantrum behaviors were associated with early childhood psychopathology severity, tantrum behaviors characterized by aggression towards self were more predictive of later psychopathology. Children displaying high levels of both types of tantrum behaviors had more severe externalizing problems during early childhood and more severe depression and oppositional defiant disorder across childhood and adolescence. Findings suggest that tantrum behaviors characterized by aggression towards self are particularly predictive of later psychopathology.

Abstract The present study examined the behavioral and neural differences in risky decision-making between delinquent (n = 23) and non-delinquent (n = 27) youth ages 13–17 years (M = 16, SD = 0.97) in relation to reward processing. While undergoing functional neuroimaging, participants completed an experimental risk task wherein they received feedback about the riskiness of their behavior in the form of facial expressions that morphed from happy to angry. Behavioral results indicated that delinquent youth took fewer risks and earned fewer rewards on the task than non-delinquent youth. Results from whole-brain analyses indicated no group differences in sensitivity to punishments (i.e. angry faces), but instead showed that delinquent youth evinced greater neural tracking of reward outcomes (i.e. cash-ins) in regions including the ventral striatum and inferior frontal gyrus. While behavioral results show that delinquent youth were more risk-averse, the neural results indicated that delinquent youth were also more reward-driven, potentially suggesting a preference for immediate rewards. Results offer important insights into differential decision-making processes between delinquent and non-delinquent youth.

Neuroscientists who have studied bullying have primarily focused on the psychopathology of diagnosable offenders or the resulting symptomatology of victimization. Less attention has been given to theories that suggest that bullying may be an interpersonal strategy. In an exploratory study, we recruited a sample of adolescents (N = 24) who engaged in high rates of delinquent behavior and collected self-report ratings of bullying behaviors. During an fMRI scan, adolescents observed instances of social exclusion and social inclusion. The adolescents’ self-reported bullying was associated with greater ventral striatum, amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and insula activation when viewing social exclusion > social inclusion. Activation in these regions is commonly associated with reward-learning, salience monitoring, and motivational processes, suggesting that bullies show altered processing of interpersonal cues and social dynamic experiences in their environment. Our findings highlight the need for developmental neuroscientists to further explore the role of social motivation in processing socio-affective information, with a particular focus on goal-directed antisocial behavior.

Abstract Adolescence has been noted as a period of increased risk taking. The literature on normative neurodevelopment implicates aberrant activation of affective and regulatory regions as key to inhibitory failures. However, many of these studies have not included adolescents engaging in high rates of risky behavior, making generalizations to the most at-risk populations potentially problematic. We conducted a comparative study of nondelinquent community (n = 24, mean age = 15.8 years, 12 female) and delinquent adolescents (n = 24, mean age = 16.2 years, 12 female) who completed a cognitive control task during functional magnetic resonance imaging, where behavioral inhibition was assessed in the presence of appetitive and aversive socioaffective cues. Community adolescents showed poorer behavioral regulation to appetitive relative to aversive cues, whereas the delinquent sample showed the opposite pattern. Recruitment of the inferior frontal gyrus, medial prefrontal cortex, and tempoparietal junction differentiated community and high-risk adolescents, as delinquent adolescents showed significantly greater recruitment when inhibiting their responses in the presence of aversive cues, while the community sample showed greater recruitment when inhibiting their responses in the presence of appetitive cues. Accounting for behavioral history may be key in understanding when adolescents will have regulatory difficulties, highlighting a need for comparative research into normative and nonnormative risk-taking trajectories.

While much of the prior work examining the behavioral and neural mechanisms of adolescent risk taking has focused on community samples, less is known about whether these mechanisms apply to adolescents engaging in high levels of risky behavior. The current study examines behavioral and neural differences between adolescents with (N = 24) and without (N = 35) a history of misconduct using a risk perception questionnaire and risk-taking fMRI task. Adolescents with a history of misconduct perceived fewer negative consequences of risk relative to positive consequences and exhibited altered neural tracking of risk and reward in the nucleus accumbens. Specifically, adolescents with a history of misconduct displayed relatively diminished increases in nucleus accumbens tracking of increasing risk level, potentially suggesting habituation to increasing risk level, and exhibited hypersensitivity to small rewards. These findings suggest that adolescents with a history of misconduct process risk and reward differently, which may underlie their increased risky behavior.While much of the prior work examining the behavioral and neural mechanisms of adolescent risk taking has focused on community samples, less is known about whether these mechanisms apply to adolescents engaging in high levels of risky behavior. The current study examines behavioral and neural differences between adolescents with (N = 24) and without (N = 35) a history of misconduct using a risk perception questionnaire and risk-taking fMRI task. Adolescents with a history of misconduct perceived fewer negative consequences of risk relative to positive consequences and exhibited altered neural tracking of risk and reward in the nucleus accumbens. Specifically, adolescents with a history of misconduct displayed relatively diminished increases in nucleus accumbens tracking of increasing risk level, potentially suggesting habituation to increasing risk level, and exhibited hypersensitivity to small rewards. These findings suggest that adolescents with a history of misconduct process risk and reward differently, which may underlie their increased risky behavior.