Persistence, Reward Dependence and Sensitivity to Reward are Associated With Unexpected Salience Response in Girls But Not Adult Women - Implications for Psychiatric Vulnerabilities.

Abstract Background Adolescence is a critical period for development of personality but also psychopathology. Those processes may be specific to sex and brain reward circuits may have a role. Here we studied how reward processing and temperament associations differ across adolescent and adult females. Methods Twentynine adolescent girls and 41 adult women completed temperament assessments and performed a classical taste conditioning paradigm during brain imaging. Data were analyzed for the dopamine-related prediction error response. In addition, unexpected stimulus receipt or omission and expected receipt response were also analyzed. Heat maps identified cortical-subcortical brain response associations. Results Adolescents showed stronger prediction error, unexpected receipt and omission responses (partial η2=0.063 to 0.166; p-values=0.001 to 0.043) in insula, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and striatum compared to adults. Expected stimulus receipt response was similar between groups. In adolescents versus adults, persistence was more strongly positively related to prediction error (OFC, insula, striatum; Fisher-Z=1.704 to 3.008; p-values=0.001 to 0.044), and unexpected stimulus receipt (OFC, insula; Fisher-Z=1.843 to 2.051; p-values=0.014 to 0.033), and negatively with omission (OFC, insula, striatum; Fisher-Z=-1.905 to -3.069; p-values=0.001 to 0.028). Reward sensitivity and reward dependence correlated more positively with unexpected stimulus receipt and more negatively with stimulus omission response in adolescents. Adolescents showed significant correlations between striatum and frontal cortex for unexpected stimulus receipt and omission that correlated with persistence but were absent in adults. Conclusions Associations between temperamental traits and brain reward response may provide neurotypical markers that contribute to developing adaptive or maladaptive behavior patterns when transitioning from adolescence toward adulthood.