Janna M Colaizzi, Shelly B Flagel, Ashley N Gearhardt, Michelle A Borowitz, Rayus Kuplicki, Vadim Zotev, Grace Clark, Jennifer Coronado, Talia Abbott, Martin P Paulus
Externalizing behaviors in childhood often predict impulse control disorders in adulthood; however, the underlying bio-behavioral risk factors are incompletely understood. In animals, the propensity to sign-track, or the degree to which incentive motivational value is attributed to reward cues, is associated with externalizing-type behaviors and deficits in executive control. Using a Pavlovian conditioned approach paradigm, we quantified sign-tracking in 40 healthy 9-12-year-olds. We also measured parent-reported externalizing behaviors and anticipatory neural activations to outcome-predicting cues using the monetary incentive delay fMRI task...
March 16, 2023: Scientific Reports