A unique adolescent response to reward prediction errors

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Abstract
Adolescents are thought to be hypersensitive to rewards. Using model-based fMRI, the authors identify elevated reward prediction error signals in the striatum during adolescence, which could contribute to the increased reward-seeking behavior seen during this stage of development. Previous work has shown that human adolescents may be hypersensitive to rewards, but it is not known which aspect of reward processing is responsible for this. We separated decision value and prediction error signals and found that neural prediction error signals in the striatum peaked in adolescence, whereas neural decision value signals varied depending on how value was modeled. This suggests that heightened dopaminergic prediction error responsivity contributes to adolescent reward seeking.