Event Abstract Back to Event Neural Correlates of Uncertainty During Adolescence: The Role of Context Adriana Galvan1* 1 University of California, Department of Psychology, United States Suboptimal decision-making during adolescence is often associated with uncertain outcomes. Previous work in adolescents has described a neurobiological profile that is similar to adults in the neural processing of uncertainty. The adult literature has also suggested that frontolimbic circuitry, specifically, the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala, has a role in representing uncertain decisions made under distinct contexts (DeMartino et al 2008). A neurobiological framework describing neural correlates of uncertainty under different contexts in adolescence remains elusive. In this investigation, social and monetary uncertainty were manipulated in two separate tasks that participants performed while undergoing fMRI. Preliminary analyses reveal distinct neural profiles in adolescents compared to adults during uncertainty. In the social uncertainty task, neutral faces framed in a negative relative to neutral context elicited greater amygdala activity in adolescents relative to adults. When making risky relative to safe choices in the monetary task, adolescents recruited greater striatal activation than adults and adults recruited greater ventromedial orbital frontal cortex activation. Different patterns emerged between adolescents and adults when the risky choice was to gain money (Gain Frame) or to avoid losing money (Loss Frame), with greater frontolimbic circuitry activation in adolescents relative to adults during loss frames and greater amygdala and insula activation in adults compared to adolescents. These results suggest that there are developmental neural changes in processing of uncertainty in both monetary and social decisions. Further, how the uncertain outcome is framed may bias behavioral and neural responeses differentially in adolescents relative to adults. Conference: Conference on Neurocognitive Development, Berkeley, CA, United States, 12 Jul - 14 Jul, 2009. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Emotional and social behavior Citation: Galvan A (2009). Neural Correlates of Uncertainty During Adolescence: The Role of Context. Conference Abstract: Conference on Neurocognitive Development. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.10.030 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 07 Jul 2009; Published Online: 07 Jul 2009. * Correspondence: Adriana Galvan, University of California, Department of Psychology, Los Angeles, United States, agalvan@ucla.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Adriana Galvan Google Adriana Galvan Google Scholar Adriana Galvan PubMed Adriana Galvan Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.