The social re-orientation of adolescence: a neuroscience
perspective on the process and its relation to psychopathology
(Nelson et al., 2005)
During adolescence social behavior changes. The most drastic changes are:
Emergence of sexuality;
An increase in peer orientation; and
A decrease in parental/family orientation.
But what neurophysiological changes may underly these changes in social behavior? That is the main
question of this paper.
Social information processing network (SIPN)
Social stimuli are processed in 3 nodes in a sequential manner. The nodes are not isolated, but interact
with each other. The primary directionality of the model is perception affective cognitive, but there
are bi-directional interactions.
1. The detection node: categorizes stimuli as ‘social’ and decodes its ‘social properties’
o Inferior occipital cortex, inferior regions of the temporal cortex, intraparietal sulcus, the
fusiform face area (FFA), a region along the superior temporal sulcus, and the anterior
portion of the temporal cortex
2. The affective node: determines the social significance of stimuli and modulates autonomic and
cognitive processes to lead to the right response to the stimulus (approach/avoid)
o Amygdala, ventral striatum, septum, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, hypothalamus,
and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC).
3. The cognitive-regulatory node: 3 basic processes:
o Perceiving the mental state of others (theory of mind, ToM): paracingulate area or
dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (mPFC))
o Inhibition of prepotent responses: ventral PFC
o Generation of (a sequence of) goal-directed behaviors: interactions between the dorsal
and ventral PFCs
Developmental changes in the SIPN during adolescence
The writers of the paper hypothesize that social behavioral changes in adolescence can be attributed to
changes in the SIPN; as a result of hormones, maturation of neuronal processes and learning.
The detection node
Brain systems in the detection node mature relatively early in life. The detection node matures well before
adolescence and no changes during adolescence have been found.
,The affective node
The brain regions linked to the affective node are densely innervated (=supplied with nerves) by gonadal
steroid receptors. These regions undergo functional and anatomical reorganization during puberty.
Gonadal steroids regulate neurotransmitter systems, thus indirectly influencing social behavior. For
example; estrogen can increase oxytocin receptor density in the amygdala, septum, nucleus accumbens,
and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis of female rats, and the density of these oxytocin receptors are
related to the amount of nurturant behavior of the mother rats. Gonodal steroids directly influence
responsiveness to social stimuli (e.g. higher levels of androgens results in increased capacity of social
stimuli to elicit sexual urges). The steroids may influence the affective attributions that are made to social
stimuli.
Some studies suggest that the brain is especially susceptible to hormonal changes when the social
stimulus is a novel one.
The cognitive-regulation node
Damage to the PFC leads to impairments in social awareness and social decision making. Most parts of the
PFC do not reach maturity until early adulthood (late teens-early twenties). The development of the
cognitive node results from increased myelination and synaptic pruning. Synaptic pruning is dependent
on experiences; this way experience is incorporated into neurobiological development. The cognitive node
matures slower and is not directly affected by hormones. Interaction between the affective and cognitive
node might lead to secondary effects of hormones.
Neuroimaging of the developing SIPN
Some findings:
Adolescents exhibit greater activation than young adults in the amygdala, OFC and anterior
cingulate when processing social stimuli. Adolescents might be more sensible to the emotional
properties of a social stimulus.
Adults, but not adolescents, are able to switch their attention between salient emotional stimuli
and non-emotional stimuli, thus selectively engaging and disengaging the OFC.
When facing hostile or fearful faces, young adolescents are less able to modulate activity within
the affective node than adults. This suggests that there are developmental changes in the ability to
regulate responses to social stimuli is indicates maturation of the cognitive-regulatory node.
The dorsomedial cortex is central in the ToM. This region undergoes developmental changes well
into late adolescence/early adulthood. However, up till now ToM is not really investigated in this
age group.
It is hypothesized that during middle/late adolescence, peers should be perceived as more rewarding than
in late childhood. It suggest that cues of peers might induce more activation in the affective node. If this is
true, then it is also likely that opposite-sexed peers should have greater approach values than same-sexed
peers (in heterosexual youth). The writers of the papers also hypothesized that activations associated
with motivation, self-esteem, acceptance, and rejection will be higher during adolescence. All these
hypotheses could be tested by neuroimaging techniques like fMRI.
Brain development, SIPN, and affective disorders
The incidence of affective (and specifically anxiety) disorders rises dramatically during adolescence.
Changes in the processing of social stimuli within the SIPN might be important in the development of
affective disorders. Adolescence is characterized by:
A period of heightened emotional responsiveness to social stimuli and social events
Strong emotional motivations.
These two mentioned above might lead to a heightened sensitivity to negative interpersonal events.
Rejection by romantic partners and peers, and difficulties in social relationships form risks/predictors of
behavioral and psychiatric difficulties in adolescence.
The association between stress and emotion is particularly strong in adolescent girls this raises
questions about the role of hormones. The ratio male : female in mood/anxiety disorders in adults is 1 : 2
and this ratio is first seen in adolescence (not in younger children). Many gender differences in social
behavior become visible during puberty. Females tend to rely more on social support mechanisms to
buffer stress and might be more sensitive to social rejection than are males.
When adolescents are socially re-orienting (more focus on peers, less on family), more stress is placed on
the SIPN. Social support networks are very important as a buffer against stressors. However, in
adolescence these support networks change, because adolescents are socially re-orienting. Adolescents
, that don’t succeed in finding a new support network of peers (maybe due to a SIPN that’s not working
properly), might be more susceptible to the pathogenic effects of stress.
There might be a mismatch between the development of the affective and the cognitive node during
adolescence. The affective node develops faster and a few years before the cognitive node. The
development of the affective node results in more emotional urges for sexual behavior, while the cognitive
node is not yet fully developed and don’t have the ability to regulate/plan/inhibit these urges correctly.
In adolescents with mood/anxiety disorders, anatomical alterations were found in the superior temporal
gyrus, ventral PFC, and amygdala. There are alterations in frontal white-matter volume and in choline
levels in the OFC of depressed adolescents. Functional abnormalities were found in the amygdala
responsiveness to social stimuli.
The social brain in adolescence: Evidence from functional
magnetic resonance imaging and behavioural studies (Burnett et
al., 2011)
Social cognition is an umbrella term for all cognitive processes required to understand and interact with
others. The brain regions that underly these processes are called ‘the social brain’. The social brain
consists of the fusiform face area (FFA), posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), amygdala, temporo-
parietal junction (TPJ), anterior rostral medial PFC (mPFC), the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and the
anterior temporal cortex (ATC). The patterns of activity in the social brain differ between adolescents and
adults. These patterns of activity can be investigated by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI).
Face processing
Within hours of being born, newborns prefer face-like objects over non-face objects. Infants rather look at
faces with mutual eye gaze than faces with averted gaze. Research shows that basic face processing
abilities develop at least until the end of the first decade of life. This may be linked to the right FFA and
face-selective superior temporal sulcus (STS), which are significantly larger in adults than in children.
Activation in these areas became more bilateral with age.
A study with children (7-8 years old), pre-adolescents (10-11 years old) and adults (19-37 years old)
showed that all groups had the same cortical network for face processing. This network consists of the
FFA, STS and interior occipital gyrus (‘occipital face area’, OFA). However, there was an age-related
increate in the extent of top-down modulation; the cortical network for face processing becomes
increasingly fine-tuned with age.
In body processing, the same age-related increase was seen in the FFA, but not in the adjacent fusiform
body area (FBA).
Facial emotion processing
The FFA, STS and OFA are important in face processing. These brain regions and some additional regions
are involved in facial emotion processing. These additional areas are the amygdala, parts of the PFC (e.g.
ACC, OFC and mPFC).
There is evidence that the ability to recognize facial emotions continues to develop during adolescence.
The specific developmental trajectory may differ between different emotions.
There is evidence that the transition from adolescence into adulthood is accompanied by a decrease in
amygdala and FFA reactivity to emotional faces. It is unclear if these decreases in reactivity correspond to
the improvement in recognition accuracy for facial emotions or improvement in other cognitive processes.
Mentalizing
Mentalizing, or Theory of Mind (ToM), is the ability to infer mental states such as intentions, beliefs and
desires. It helps us to understand and predict behaviors of others that arise from their mental states. ToM
is linked to a brain network consisting of the ATC, pSTS, TPJ and anterior rostral portion of the mPFC. The
ATC represents semantic social information, and the pSTS is important for decoding social gestures and
signals, to form predictions of action or intent. Both TPJ and anterior rostral mPFC are important in
representing mental states.
The activity of the anterior rostral mPFC during mentalizing decreases with age between adolescence and
adulthood. There is evidence that the pSTS, TPJ and ATC show an opposite developmental pattern. These
