Social processing in early adolescence: Associations between neurophysiological, self-report, and behavioral measures

Abstract

Peer relationships play a major role in adolescent development, but few methods exist for measuring social processing at the neurophysiological level. This study extends our pilot study of Island Getaway, a task for eliciting event-related potentials (ERPs) to peer feedback. We differentiated ERPs using principal components analysis (PCA) and examined associations with behavioral and self-report measures in young adolescents (N = 412). PCA revealed an early negativity in the ERP enhanced for rejection feedback, followed by a series of positivities (consistent with reward positivity [RewP], P300, and late positive potential) that were enhanced for acceptance feedback. Greater self-reported task engagement correlated with a larger RewP to acceptance and lower rates of rejecting peers. Youth higher in depressive symptoms exhibited a blunted RewP to social acceptance and reported lower engagement. Results highlight ERP components sensitive to peer feedback that may inform understanding of social processes relevant to typical and atypical development.

Social Feedback Valence Differentially Modulates the Reward Positivity, P300, and Late Positive Potential

“…Our findings also replicated earlier work on the LPP to social feedback (Kujawa et al, 2017); specifically, LPP amplitudes were greater following acceptance versus rejection.…”

“…We found that the P300 was larger for acceptance relative to rejection. This finding is consistent with findings from a study that used the Island Getaway task in a large sample of adolescents (N = 412; Kujawa et al, 2017), but is inconsistent with other smaller social feedback studies (Cao et al, 2015;Dekkers et al, 2015). The P300 to "on the fence" feedback was reduced relative to acceptance and comparable to the P300 to rejection.…”

“…Island Getaway Task. Participants completed an adapted version of the Island Getaway task (modified from Kujawa et al, 2017) while EEG data were recorded. Participants were told that they were playing a game with 13 other college students at institutions across the United States in which they would be travelling along a chain of Hawaiian Islands with the goal of reaching the "Big Island" at the end of the island chain.…”

“…Monetary reward studies examining the LPP have yielded mixed findings-some studies have found greater LPP amplitudes following gains versus losses (Webb et al, 2017), others have found greater LPP amplitudes following losses versus gains (van Meel, Heslenfeld, Oosterlaan, Luman, & Sergeant, 2011), and yet others have found the LPP did not differ between gains and losses and was instead modulated by reward/loss magnitude (Broyd et al, 2012;Yeung & Sanfey, 2004). There also is evidence that in early adolescence, the LPP is enhanced in response to social acceptance compared to rejection feedback (Kujawa et al, 2017).…”

Developmental trajectory of the late positive potential: Using temporal‐spatial PCA to characterize within‐subject developmental changes in emotional processing

“…Next, after EEG setup, participants completed a total of five tasks. The current study focuses only on data from the picture-viewing task, and the results of other tasks administered during the same experimental sessions are presented elsewhere (Kujawa, Kessel, Carroll, Arfer, & Klein, 2017;Kujawa, Proudfit, Laptook, & Klein, 2015;Meyer, Hajcak, Glenn, Kujawa, & Klein, 2017;Meyer, Hajcak, Torpey-Newman, Kujawa, & Klein, 2015). Task order was counterbalanced across all participants.…”