2015 — 2016 |
Sherman, Lauren Elizabeth |
F31Activity Code Description: To provide predoctoral individuals with supervised research training in specified health and health-related areas leading toward the research degree (e.g., Ph.D.). |
Peer Influence, Risk, and Adolescent Social Media Use: Insight From Neuroimaging @ University of California Los Angeles
? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The second decade of life is characterized by an amplified interest in and sensitivity to peers. As a result, adolescents are increasingly susceptible to peer influence, particularly in situations involving risky decision-making. Importantly, evidence indicates that exposure to peers' risky behaviors in online environments contributes to offline risk-taking. Therefore, it becomes possible to investigate the neural correlates of peer influence in an ecologically valid manner, given the feasibility of mimicking social media use in the confines of an MRI scanner. The present project capitalizes on this opportunity by measuring neural responsivity to peer influence and risky images as they are experienced in a social media environment. By using a neuroimaging approach to examine risky decision-making and peer influence, this research can lend unique insight into mechanisms that may buffer individuals from or predispose them towards risky outcomes. Forty-eight adolescents will undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while completing a task that mimics the social photo-sharing application Instagram. Participants will view a feed of photographs ostensibly submitted by peers, and decide whether to like each image. The proposed study will test how level of peer endorsement of a photograph (indicated by the number of likes each photograph previously received) influences participants' behavior (i.e., whether they like each image) and neural responses while viewing that image. Several images will depict typical risk-taking behaviors, including alcohol and cigarette use. Participants will aso submit their own images for inclusion in the study; this will allow for the examination of the neural correlates of receiving social feedback on one's own online content, and the relation between this response and behavioral measures of susceptibility to peer influence (SPI). Survey measures will assess participants' history of risk-taking, perception of risk, and SPI. The relatio between individual differences in risk-taking/SPI and individual neural and behavioral responses during social media use will be tested. This research will lend insight into both a sociocultural factor (i.e., social media use) and neural mechanisms that contribute to individual risk for alcohol and drug abuse as well as risky sexual behavior, thereby contributing to the development of targeted educational programs designed to reduce youth risk-taking and SPI. In line with the recent efforts of the NIAAA, NIDA, and NCI to form collaborative opportunities for addiction research, the proposed project will investigate behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms that place individuals at increased risk for a range of negative outcomes relating to alcohol and drug abuse during a vulnerable developmental period. In particular, the aims of this project are consistent with the aims of NIAAA's Underage Drinking Research Initiative, which seeks to understand factors that contribute to underage alcohol abuse, including the relation between digital media and underage alcohol use, and the mechanisms whereby social media influences adolescent alcohol consumption.
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0.958 |
2016 — 2018 |
Sherman, Lauren Chein, Jason (co-PI) [⬀] Steinberg, Laurence (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Functional Brain Connectivity, Peer Influence, and Risky Behavior
The Directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences offers postdoctoral research fellowships to provide opportunities for recent doctoral graduates to obtain additional training, to gain research experience under the sponsorship of established scientists, and to broaden their scientific horizons beyond their undergraduate and graduate training. Postdoctoral fellowships are further designed to assist new scientists to direct their research efforts across traditional disciplinary lines and to avail themselves of unique research resources, sites, and facilities, including at foreign locations. This postdoctoral fellowship award supports a rising scholar investigating risky behavior in adolescents, using interdisciplinary approaches drawn from neuroscience, cognitive science and developmental psychology. Adolescent risk-taking is a significant threat to public health, and contributes to a variety of adverse outcomes, including drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy and STIs, and violent crime. Two elements are known to contribute significantly to likelihood to engage in risk-taking: first, youth are more likely to take risks in the presence of peers, and second, risk-taking increases when youth are under the influence of alcohol. While alcohol consumption often takes place in a social setting, little research has considered how alcohol use and peer presence interact to influence adolescent decision-making. The present study uses a neurobiological framework to examine how the combination of peer presence and alcohol consumption affects brain responses during risk-taking tasks. Specifically, the project examines how peer presence and alcohol affect connections between brain areas known to be involved in risky decision-making. The project also examines how individual differences in brain responses relate to individual tendency to engage in risk-taking, give in to peer pressure, and abuse drugs and alcohol. Ultimately, the goal of this project is to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the mechanisms underlying suboptimal decision-making in adolescence, and to identify potential neural or behavioral factors that predispose some youth to greater risk.
Adolescence is a time of considerable brain development, and a significant body of research suggests that two neural systems mature along different trajectories throughout this period. The differing developmental time courses of 1) cognitive control and 2) affective/reward processing are thought to contribute to adolescents' tendency to engage in risk-taking. The neural regions involved in these processes are well-characterized in the literature. However, much less is known about the way these regions interact during development, and how this interaction is affected by contextual factors that impact risk-taking. Previous research has identified two contextual factors that contribute significantly to adolescents? likelihood to engage in risky decision-making: first, adolescents are more likely to take risks in the presence of peers, and second, risk-taking increases when youth are under the influence of alcohol. While alcohol consumption in adolescence often takes place in a social setting, little research has considered how alcohol use and peer presence interact to influence decision-making. The present project addresses the limitations in the current literature by 1) utilizing fMRI analytic techniques that test models of interaction between multiple neural systems and 2) investigating the combined role of peer presence and alcohol intoxication on adolescent decision-making in a single experimental design. This project tests the hypothesis that peer presence and alcohol intoxication significantly diminish connectivity between cognitive control and affective processing regions during decision-making, thereby contributing to increased risk-taking. The project will also examine how neural responses relate to individual tendency to take risks and give in to peer pressure. In the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience, the predominant theories of adolescent decision-making posit a causal relationship between brain activity in multiple neural systems during risk-taking. However, the extant literature has relied on analytic approaches that are not designed to test causal interactions between brain regions. This project utilizes fMRI analytic approaches that test functional and effective connectivity between regions (Psychophysiological Interaction and Dynamic Causal Modeling), in order to directly investigate the way these regions interact and the direction of effects. Furthermore, this project will shed light on the combined role of peers and alcohol during risky decision-making, leading to a more sophisticated understanding of the way biological and sociocultural factors interact to produce outcomes in adolescence. The project and postdoctoral training require an interdisciplinary approach, utilizing analytic techniques from cognitive neuroscience, theories from developmental psychology, and experimental methods drawn from both clinical psychology and functional neuroimaging.
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0.961 |