Developmental differences in reward sensitivity and sensation seeking in adolescence: Testing sex-specific associations with gonadal hormones and pubertal development.

Abstract

Sensation seeking has been found to increase, on average, from childhood to adolescence. Developmental scientists have hypothesized that this change could be driven by the rise of gonadal hormones at puberty, which affect reward-related processing in the brain. In a large, age-heterogeneous, population-based sample of adolescents and young adults (N = 810; ages 13-20 years), we tested for sex-specific associations between age, self-reported pubertal development, gonadal hormones (estradiol and testosterone) as measured in saliva, reward sensitivity as measured by a multivariate battery of in-laboratory tasks (including the Iowa gambling task, balloon analogue risk task, and stoplight task), and self-reported sensation seeking. Reward sensitivity was more strongly associated with sensation seeking in males than females. For both males and females, reward sensitivity was unrelated to age but was higher among those who reported more advanced pubertal development. There were significant sex differences in the effects of self-reported pubertal development on sensation seeking, with a positive association evident in males but a negative association in females. Moreover, gonadal hormones also showed diverging associations with sensation seeking-positive with testosterone but negative with estradiol. Overall, the results indicate that sensation seeking among adolescents and young adults depends on a complex constellation of developmental influences that operate via sex-specific mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record

Reward Responsiveness in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study: African Americans’ Diminished Returns of Parental Education

“…A higher reward responsiveness of males than females is known. This is also related to the higher impulsivity [ 127 , 128 , 129 , 130 , 131 ], reward dependence [ 16 , 132 , 133 , 134 , 135 , 136 , 137 , 138 , 139 ], and novelty seeking [ 140 , 141 , 142 , 143 ] of males than females. The result is a higher risk taking of males than females [ 127 , 144 , 145 , 146 ].…”

Sensation seeking and nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior among adolescent psychiatric patients

“…Individuals high in sensation seeking traits tend to perceive such activities as less dangerous (Zimmerman, 2010) and view the world in general as less threatening (Franken et al, 1992). Further, sensation seeking is associated with increased reward sensitivity (Harden et al, 2018) and decreased activation of the aversive motivational system (Lissek et al, 2005). Individuals with high levels of this trait exhibit less fear, anxiety, and startle response in the face of aversive stimuli.…”

An effort-based social feedback paradigm reveals aversion to popularity in socially anxious participants and increased motivation in adolescents

“…Notably, males choose the higher effort task more often than females [ 1 ]. One potential explanation may be that males have increased sensitivity to (monetary) rewards compared to females [ 3 – 5 ], but whether the EEfRT task is gender-biased is an open question [ 1 ]. In our study, participants created social media posts and had to expend physical effort to show their posts to accounts with variable numbers of followers and variable probabilities of positive feedback.…”