Neural sensitivity to social evaluation and risk for internalizing symptoms: Moderation by cognitive control

Adolescence is a period of heightened social connectedness and increased neural and behavioral sensitivity to peer opinions and evaluation. Sensitivity to peer feedback allows youth to navigate a socially complex world and develop independence. However, reactivity to social feedback may also lead to increased worry and rumination in the context of social stressors, and elevated neural reactivity to peer evaluation has been proposed as one factor that may contribute to increased rates of anxiety and depression during adolescence, particularly among adolescent girls. The present study builds on current theory and research by leveraging a longitudinal, multi-modal design to examine whether neural reactivity to the anticipation and receipt of peer feedback predicts overall levels of and changes in symptoms of anxiety and depression. A sample of 86 adolescent girls (Mage = 16.32, SD = .84) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task in which they indicated their preferences across several domains and received randomly generated negative, positive, and neutral feedback that they were told reflected whether peers agreed with their preferences. Adolescents were interviewed to assess symptoms of anxiety and depression every three months for a year following the fMRI task. Results suggested that heightened activation in several social-emotional processing regions of the brain to the anticipation and receipt of feedback predicted initially higher levels of anxiety and depression, although activation in several regions was associated with decreasing psychopathology over time. While adolescence represents a time of increased risk for anxiety and depression, the majority of adolescents develop effective skills to navigate this stage and only a minority go on to experience psychopathology. Accordingly, this study sought to explore whether cognitive control (CC), a trait that supports better self-regulation and is linked to lower levels of anxiety and depression, might buffer the effects of neural sensitivity to social feedback on psychopathology. Supporting this hypothesis, neural reactivity to feedback was more positively associated with anxiety and depression among youth with low relative to high CC. Results from this study suggest that neural reactivity to social evaluation may serve to sensitize individuals to their environment in ways that can confer risk for or resilience against psychopathology depending on youths' ability to regulate their behaviors in maladaptive or adaptive ways.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Davis, Megan M

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rudolph, Karen D
• Heller, Wendy
• Berenbaum, Howard
• Hankin, Benjamin L
• Telzer, Eva H

• anxiety
• depression
• neuroimaging
• adolescence

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Megan Davis

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113328

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/113328