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Cerebral white matter correlates of delay discounting in adolescents
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Cerebral white matter correlates of delay discounting in adolescents

Beng-Choon Ho, Julie A. Koeppel and Amy B. Barry
Behavioural brain research, Vol.305, pp.108-114
05/15/2016
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2016.03.004
PMCID: PMC5038584
PMID: 26946275

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Abstract

The adolescent brain undergoes extensive structural white matter (WM) changes. Adolescence is also a critical time period during which cognitive, emotional and social maturation occurs in transition into adulthood. Compared to adults, adolescents are generally more impulsive with increased risk-taking behaviors. The goal of this study is to examine whether adolescent impulsivity may be related to cerebral WM maturation. In 89 healthy adolescents, we assessed impulsivity using the delay discounting task, and MRI WM volumes in brain regions previously implicated in delay discounting behaviors. We found that smaller delay discounting AUC (area under the curve) was associated with larger WM volumes in orbitofrontal, dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortices (PFC) and motor cortex. There were no significant effects of AUC on WM volumes within somatosensory brain regions. In our sample, younger age was significantly associated with greater WM volumes in orbitofrontal and dorsolateral PFC subregions. Even after accounting for age-related effects, preference for immediate rewards (or greater impulsivity) still correlated with larger WM volumes in prefrontal regions known to mediate cognitive control. Our findings lend further support to the notion that reduced brain WM maturity may limit the ability in adolescents to forgo immediate rewards leading to greater impulsivity. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Behavioral Sciences Life Sciences & Biomedicine Neurosciences Neurosciences & Neurology Science & Technology

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