Abstract
Human prosocial behavior (PB) emerges in childhood and matures during adolescence. Previous task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have reported involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in social cognition in adolescence. However, neurometabolic and functional connectivity (FC) basis of PB in early adolescence remains unclear. Here, we measured GABA levels in the ACC and FC in a subsample (aged 10.5–13.4 years) of a large-scale population-based cohort with MR spectroscopy (MEGA-PRESS) and resting-state fMRI. PB was negatively correlated with GABA levels in the ACC (N = 221), and positively correlated with right ACC-seeded FC with the right precentral gyrus and the bilateral middle and posterior cingulate gyrus (N = 187). Furthermore, GABA concentrations and this FC were negatively correlated, and the FC mediated the association between GABA levels and PB (N = 171). Our results from a minimally biased, large-scale sample provide new insights into the neurometabolic and neurofunctional correlates of prosocial development during early adolescence.
Highlights
Prosocial behavior (PB), defined as “voluntary behavior intended to benefit another”, is an important psychological factor in humans[1]
Prior to the main analysis, we examined whether any difference in prosocial behavior (PB) scale determined with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) exists between the participants and non-participants of the population-neuroscience study of the TTC (pn-TTC) study
We examined whether seed-based functional connectivity (FC) was correlated with age at magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning, and found no brain region in which FC with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was significantly correlated with age
Summary
Prosocial behavior (PB), defined as “voluntary behavior intended to benefit another”, is an important psychological factor in humans[1]. ACC activation during face-processing tasks increases from childhood to adolescence, and decreases from adolescence to adulthood[18] Such reports suggest that the mPFC, including the ACC, is a core brain region underlying the adolescent maturation of social cognition. While macro-level developmental changes in the brain, such as cortical thinning[22] and white matter volume increases[23], have previously been described with structural MRI techniques, there remains little information regarding the development of neurometabolism and the functional connectome. These metabolic and functional maturation processes in adolescent brains may influence the development of prosociality, a human-specific higher-order social function[24]. To our knowledge, the relationship between GABA levels and PB in healthy adolescents remains to be investigated
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