Normative Development of Ventral Striatal Resting State Connectivity in Humans

Authors

• Dominic S. Fareri, Columbia University, Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University
• Laurel Gabard-Durnam, Columbia University, University of California-Los Angeles
• Bonnie Goff, University of California-Los Angeles
• Jessica Flannery, University of Oregon
• Dylan G. Gee, Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College
• Daniel Stephen Lumian, University of DenverFollow
• Christina Caldera, Columbia University
• Nim Tottenham, Columbia University, University of California-Los Angeles

Publication Date

6-16-2015

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Keywords

Ventral striatum, Development, Resting-state, Incentives, Valuation

Abstract

Incentives play a crucial role in guiding behavior throughout our lives, but perhaps no more so than during the early years of life. The ventral striatum is a critical piece of an incentive-based learning circuit, sharing robust anatomical connections with subcortical (e.g., amygdala, hippocampus) and cortical structures (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), insula) that collectively support incentive valuation and learning. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) is a powerful method that provides insight into the development of the functional architecture of these connections involved in incentive-based learning. We employed a seed-based correlation approach to investigate ventral striatal rsFC in a cross-sectional sample of typically developing individuals between the ages of 4.5 and 23-years old (n = 66). Ventral striatal rsFC with the mPFC showed regionally specific linear age-related changes in connectivity that were associated with age-related increases in circulating testosterone levels. Further, ventral striatal connectivity with the posterior hippocampus and posterior insula demonstrated quadratic age-related changes characterized by negative connectivity in adolescence. Finally, across this age range, the ventral striatum demonstrated positive coupling with the amygdala beginning during childhood and remaining consistently positive across age. In sum, our findings suggest that normative ventral striatal rsFC development is dynamic and characterized by early establishment of connectivity with medial prefrontal and limbic structures supporting incentive-based learning, as well as substantial functional reorganization with later developing regions during transitions into and out of adolescence.

Copyright Date

6-16-2015

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved.

Rights Holder

Elsevier

Provenance

Received from author

Language

English (eng)

Extent

16 pgs

Publication Statement

Copyright held by Elsevier, Inc. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Publication Title

NeuroImage

Volume

118

First Page

422

Last Page

437

ISSN

1095-9572

Recommended Citation

Fareri, Dominic S., Gabard-Durnam, L., Goff, B., Flannery, J., Gee, D. G., Lumian, D. S., ... & Tottenham, N. (2015). Normative development of ventral striatal resting state connectivity in humans. NeuroImage, 118, 422–437. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.06.022

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.06.022