Anding compared with others within a social hierarchy, which can be inferred from one’s own subjective experience (e.g. dominance), the subjective experience of others (e.g. popularity or reputation), or from an objective measure that enables direct comparison with others (e.g. task performance) (Koski et al., 2015). The adult neuroimaging literature has shown that processing of status-related cues involvesReceived: 1 December 2015; Revised: 22 June 2016; Accepted: 24 AugustC V The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: [email protected] is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected]. A. Op de Macks et al.|activation of reward-related brain regions, such as the ventral striatum (Ly et al., 2011; Zerubavel et al., 2015). These findings suggest that social status may have a relatively direct influence upon the neural mechanisms that evaluate reward. According to the social-information processing network model (Nelson et al., 2005, 2016), earlier development of reward-related brain Win 63843 clinical trials regions compared to cognitive-regulatory brain regions gives rise, in adolescence, to the increased emotional salience of social information (e.g. one’s social status among peers) and the motivation to learn about and act upon these socio-emotional experiences by engaging in behaviors highly valued by one’s peers (i.e. status-seeking behavior). One example of status-seeking behavior is the engagement in risk taking. According to a dual-systems model (Steinberg, 2008; Shulman et al., 2016), the tendency to take risks increases across adolescence, particularly in the presence of peers, due to heightened activation in reward-related brain regions combined with suboptimal levels of activation in brain regions that regulate these reward-related processes. As a result, adolescents become more motivated to engage in socially rewarding behaviors, despite the potential negative consequences associated with risk taking. Evidence supporting this model comes from studies that focused on risk taking in the presence of peers. These studies showed that adolescents, as opposed to children and adults, make more risky decisions in the presence of peers compared to when alone (Gardner and Steinberg, 2005; Chein et al., 2011; Smith et al. 2014a). Furthermore, adolescents, but neither children or adults, who engaged in more risk taking showed increased reward-related activation–in both ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex–in the presence of peers compared to when alone (Chein et al., 2011). Together, these findings support the notion that adolescence is a unique time in development during which individuals are particularly sensitive to social order AZD0156 influences from their peers (Blakemore and Mills, 2014; Knoll et al., 2015) and highlight the importance of rewardrelated processes for peer influences on risk taking. Another perspective, based on the belief that adolescents are engaging in goal-directed behavior, is that adolescents become more attuned to socio-emotional information and learn to regulate their behavior to accomplish social goals tha.Anding compared with others within a social hierarchy, which can be inferred from one’s own subjective experience (e.g. dominance), the subjective experience of others (e.g. popularity or reputation), or from an objective measure that enables direct comparison with others (e.g. task performance) (Koski et al., 2015). The adult neuroimaging literature has shown that processing of status-related cues involvesReceived: 1 December 2015; Revised: 22 June 2016; Accepted: 24 AugustC V The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: [email protected] is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected]. A. Op de Macks et al.|activation of reward-related brain regions, such as the ventral striatum (Ly et al., 2011; Zerubavel et al., 2015). These findings suggest that social status may have a relatively direct influence upon the neural mechanisms that evaluate reward. According to the social-information processing network model (Nelson et al., 2005, 2016), earlier development of reward-related brain regions compared to cognitive-regulatory brain regions gives rise, in adolescence, to the increased emotional salience of social information (e.g. one’s social status among peers) and the motivation to learn about and act upon these socio-emotional experiences by engaging in behaviors highly valued by one’s peers (i.e. status-seeking behavior). One example of status-seeking behavior is the engagement in risk taking. According to a dual-systems model (Steinberg, 2008; Shulman et al., 2016), the tendency to take risks increases across adolescence, particularly in the presence of peers, due to heightened activation in reward-related brain regions combined with suboptimal levels of activation in brain regions that regulate these reward-related processes. As a result, adolescents become more motivated to engage in socially rewarding behaviors, despite the potential negative consequences associated with risk taking. Evidence supporting this model comes from studies that focused on risk taking in the presence of peers. These studies showed that adolescents, as opposed to children and adults, make more risky decisions in the presence of peers compared to when alone (Gardner and Steinberg, 2005; Chein et al., 2011; Smith et al. 2014a). Furthermore, adolescents, but neither children or adults, who engaged in more risk taking showed increased reward-related activation–in both ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex–in the presence of peers compared to when alone (Chein et al., 2011). Together, these findings support the notion that adolescence is a unique time in development during which individuals are particularly sensitive to social influences from their peers (Blakemore and Mills, 2014; Knoll et al., 2015) and highlight the importance of rewardrelated processes for peer influences on risk taking. Another perspective, based on the belief that adolescents are engaging in goal-directed behavior, is that adolescents become more attuned to socio-emotional information and learn to regulate their behavior to accomplish social goals tha.
