Teen Brains (IMAGE)
Caption
Pearl Chiu and Brooks King-Casas, both associate professors at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, combined brain scans and computational modeling to understand how social peers sway decision-making in teenagers. They examined neural activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and found a notable difference between how substance-naïve and substance-exposed teens responded to safe and risky peers' choices. Teens who had not used illicit substances showed significantly more activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, particularly when they viewed their peers' safe choices, which indicates a greater social reward signal.
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Virginia Tech
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