More than a face: Neural markers of motivated attention toward social and non-social reward-related images in children.

Affective images engage motivational systems that shape emotional experience and cognitive processes. However, relatively little work has examined motivated attention toward distinct categories of approach motivation, particularly social motivation, in children. In the current study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected while children (n = 43; 22 females; Mage  = 8.49 years) completed a picture-viewing task using a novel stimulus set of child relevant images representing social and non-social categories of reward-related images. Results showed that the frontal N400 (fN400) was more prominent for intrapersonal images that showed individuals playing alone or achieving rewards (e.g. medals). For the LPP, males showed the greatest reactivity to non-social object-based reward images. In contrast, females showed a larger LPP response for interpersonal images that showed scenes of social interaction between individuals. Overall, LPP reactivity to intrapersonal images was correlated with greater behavior regulation problems. Collectively, these results highlight unique patterns of neural prioritization to distinct categories of social and non-social reward-related stimuli that may serve as important markers in tracking connections between approach motivation and the development of self-regulation in children.