Abstract
This study investigated behavioral and neural correlates underlying social feedback processing and subsequent aggressive behaviors in childhood in two age cohorts (test sample: n = 509/n = ...385 and replication sample: n = 354/n = 195, 7–9 years old). Using a previously validated Social Network Aggression Task, we showed that negative social feedback resulted in most behavioral aggression, followed by less aggression after neutral and least aggression after positive feedback. Receiving positive and negative social feedback was associated with increased activity in the insula, medial prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Responding to feedback was associated with additional activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) following positive feedback. This DLPFC activation correlated negatively with aggression. Furthermore, age analyses showed that older children showed larger reductions in aggression following positive feedback and more neural activation in the DLPFC when responding to positive feedback compared to younger children. To assess the robustness of our results, we examined these processes in two independent behavioral/functional magnetic resonance imaging samples using equivalence testing, thereby contributing to replicable reports. Together, these findings demonstrate an important role of social saliency and regulatory processes where regulation of aggression rapidly develops between the ages of 7 and 9 years.
How neural correlates of self‐concept are influenced by environmental versus genetic factors is currently not fully understood. We investigated heritability estimates of behavioral and neural ...correlates of self‐concept in middle childhood since this phase is an important time window for taking on new social roles in academic and social contexts. To do so, a validated self‐concept fMRI task was applied in a twin sample of 345 participants aged between 7 and 9 years. In the self‐concept condition, participants were asked to indicate whether academic and social traits applied to them whereas the control condition required trait categorization. The self‐processing activation analyses (n = 234) revealed stronger medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation for self than for control conditions. This effect was more pronounced for social‐self than academic self‐traits, whereas stronger dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation was observed for academic versus social self‐evaluations. Behavioral genetic modeling (166 complete twin pairs) revealed that 25–52% of the variation in academic self‐evaluations was explained by genetic factors, whereas 16–49% of the variation in social self‐evaluations was explained by shared environmental factors. Neural genetic modeling (91 complete twin pairs) for variation in mPFC and anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation for academic self‐evaluations confirmed genetic and unique environmental influences, whereas anterior PFC activation for social self‐evaluations was additionally influenced by shared environmental influences. This indicates that environmental context possibly has a larger impact on the behavioral and neural correlates of social self‐concept at a young age. This is the first study demonstrating in a young twin sample that self‐concept depends on both genetic and environmental factors, depending on the specific domain.
We investigated heritability estimates of behavioral and neural correlates of self‐concept in middle childhood since this phase is an important time window for taking on new social roles in academic and social contexts. To do so, a validated self‐concept fMRI task was applied in a twin sample of 345 participants aged between 7 and 9 years. This is the first study demonstrating in a young twin sample that self‐concept depends on both genetic and environmental factors, with stronger environmental influences in the social versus academic domain.
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