Social reticence is expressed as shy, anxiously avoidant behavior in early childhood. With development, overt signs of social reticence may diminish but could still manifest themselves in neural responses to peers. We obtained measures of social reticence across 2 to 7 years of age. At age 11, preadolescents previously characterized as high (n = 30) or low (n = 23) in social reticence completed a novel functional-MRI-based peer-interaction task that quantifies neural responses to the anticipation and receipt of distinct forms of social evaluation. High (but not low) social reticence in early childhood predicted greater activity in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and left and right insula, brain regions implicated in processing salience and distress, when participants anticipated unpredictable compared with predictable feedback. High social reticence was also associated with negative functional connectivity between insula and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region commonly implicated in affect regulation. Finally, among participants with high social reticence, negative evaluation was associated with increased amygdala activity, but only during feedback from unpredictable peers.

中文翻译：

---

幼儿社会沉默在不同形式的同伴评估中预测青春期前青少年的大脑功能

社交沉默表现为儿童早期害羞、焦虑的回避行为。随着发展，社会沉默的明显迹象可能会减少，但仍会表现在对同龄人的神经反应中。我们获得了 2 至 7 岁的社会沉默量度。在 11 岁时，以前在社交沉默方面表现为高 (n = 30) 或低 (n = 23) 的青春期前儿童完成了一项新的基于功能性 MRI 的同伴互动任务，该任务量化了对不同形式社交的预期和接受的神经反应。评估。儿童早期的高（但不低）社交沉默预示着背侧前扣带回皮层和左右脑岛的更大活动，这些大脑区域涉及处理显着性和痛苦，与可预测的反馈相比，当参与者预期不可预测时。高度的社交沉默也与脑岛和腹内侧前额叶皮层之间的负功能连接有关，该区域通常与情绪调节有关。最后，在高度社交沉默的参与者中，负面评价与杏仁核活动增加有关，但仅限于来自不可预测的同龄人的反馈。