Early-Childhood Social Reticence Predicts Brain Function in Preadolescent Youths During Distinct Forms of Peer Evaluation

Abstract

Social reticence (SR) manifests as shy, anxiously avoidant behavior in early childhood. With development, overt signs of SR may diminish but could still manifest in neural responses to peers. Measures of SR were obtained across ages 2-to-7 years. At age 11, pre-adolescents previously characterized as high (N=30) or low (N=23) in SR completed a novel fMRI-based peer interaction task that quantifies neural responses to the anticipation and receipt of distinct forms of social evaluation. While anticipating unpredictable compared with predictable feedback, high relative to low childhood SR was associated with greater activity in dorsal anterior cingulate and bilateral insula, brain regions implicated in processing salience and distress. High SR was also associated with negative functional connectivity between insula and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region commonly implicated in affect regulation. Finally, among the high SR group, negative evaluation was associated with increased amygdala activity, but only during feedback from unpredictable peers.

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“…This procedure was designed to prevent priming particular answers (Bargh & Chartrand, 2000) and is consistent with similar developmental studies (Jarcho et al, 2016). This procedure was designed to prevent priming particular answers (Bargh & Chartrand, 2000) and is consistent with similar developmental studies (Jarcho et al, 2016).…”

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