The Social Brain in Adolescence

Question 1

What is Theory of Mind?

Answer 1

Understanding other people’s mind in terms of intentions and goals.

Question 2

What areas of the brain are particularly activated during ToM tasks/what is the social brain in adults?

Answer 2

mPFC (medial Prefrontal Cortex; My Pretty Fucking Cunt),

ATC (anterior Temporal Cortex, and That Cunt),

pSTS (posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus; STatS)

TPJ (Temporal Parietal Junction; That Prick Jake)

Question 3

Kessler (2005)

Answer 3

Strong association between adolescence and mental illnesses. 75% of adult mental disorder has its onset before 24yrs, mainly during adolescence

Question 4

Viner (2010)

Answer 4

Main causes of death in adolscents: 1) Accidents, 2) Suicide

Question 5

Steinberg (2008)

Answer 5

Peer influence on risk taking. Adults vs. young adults vs. adolescents, playing a driving video game. Measured number of risks taken (crashes, red lights).

When alone, all groups similar performance so adolescents don’t always seem to take more risks.

With groups, adolescents (tripled) > young adults (doubled) > adults. Critical factor of risk taking in adolescents is peer/social influence.

Question 6

What does car insurance data show about risk taking?

Answer 6

Younger ages have more crashes with other similar-age passenger.

Question 7

Sebastian et al. (2010)

Answer 7

Cyberball study (Williams et al., 2000). Virtual game of catch with two other “participants”, either included or excluded. Adults vs. young adolescents vs. mid adolescents.

All excluded participants show significant decline in mood, adolescents hypersensitive.q

Question 8

Blakemore & Mills (in press)

Answer 8

Weigh pros and cons of each choice when making a decision. There is additional factor of social influence, particularly weighted in adolescence. Social risk has to be accounted for in public health/advertising.

Question 9

How many neurons are there in a baby’s brain?

Answer 9

~86bn

Question 10

How many neurons are there in an adult’s brain?

Answer 10

~86bn

Question 11

Where do neuron-related changes happen throughout age?

Answer 11

The level of synapses

Question 12

What synaptic changes occurs in the human cortex?

Answer 12

Synaptogenesis - continuous proliferation of synapses until there’s an excessive number. This involves the arborisation of dentrites and increase in synapses.

However, there is no change to the number of cell bodies.

Synaptic pruning must then occur to eliminate redundant synapses that were overproduced in early years of life.

Question 13

How long does the process of synaptic pruning take in monkeys and others animals?

Answer 13

First three years of life (Rakic et al.)

Question 14

Huttenlocher (1979)

Answer 14

Postmortem synaptic density show reorganisation continues for decades in human. Visual cortex reorganisation pruning stabilised at late childhood, frontal cortex has protracted synapse curve. Changes take long, genesis peaks later and pruning continues all the to 30.

Question 15

How has MRI supported synaptic change?

Answer 15

Structure development. Grey matter contains cell bodies and connections, white matter contains long fibres that connect cells (axonal tracts). Axonal tracts are influenced by myelination, which is affected by age.

Question 16

Giedd et al. (2006)

Answer 16

Frontal grey matter volume peaks around puberty for boys and girls, declines through adolescence.

Is this because of synaptogenesis or white matter increasing and so grey matter decreases (increase in myelination)?

Question 17

Mills et al. (2012)

Answer 17

288 ps (124 female), 7-30 years, scanned between 2 and 7 times at least two years apart.

All significant changes in grey matter volume decline through adolescent period.

Question 18

Burnett et al. (2009)

Answer 18

Female adolescents vs. adults, two conditions: social emotions vs. basic emotions. Reading a scenario involving the emotion whilst in the scanner, then rating feeling of emotion.

During social emotion condition, adults and adolescents showed social brain activation. Medial PFC greater in adolescents, left anterior temporal cortex strong in adults.

Signal shifts from anterior to posterior during development.

Left anterior temporal cortex activity seems to be driven by puberty, not age, opposite for mPFC.

Question 19

Blakemore & Robbins (2012)

Answer 19

Meta analysis: mPFC activity in social cognition tasks decreases during adolescence.

Question 20

Dumontheil et al. (2010)

Answer 20

Director task, very little instruction, feedback and time. More errors made in director condition compared to control, forgot to account for different perspectives, egocentric. Gradual improvement through development, significant improvement around mid adolescence (14/17yrs vs adults). Control condition showed good performance across ages. Autistic participants worse at both conditions.