Adolescents demonstrate both heightened sensitivity to peer influence and increased risk-taking. The current study provides a novel test of how these two phenomena are related at behavioral and neural levels. Adolescent males (N = 83, 16–17 years) completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) in an fMRI scanner. One week later, participants completed a driving task in which they drove alone and with a safety- or risk-promoting peer passenger. Results showed that neural responses during BART were associated with participants’ behavioral conformity to safe vs. risky peer influence while later driving. First, the extent that neural activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) scaled with decision stakes in BART was associated with conformity to risky peer influence. Additionally, stake-modulated functional connectivity between ventral striatum (VS) and risk processing regions (including ACC and insula) was associated with safer driving under risky peer influence (i.e. resistance to risky peer influence), suggesting that connectivity between VS and ACC as well as insula may serve a protective role under risky peer influence. Together, these results suggest that adolescents’ neural responses to risky decision making may modulate their behavioral conformity to different types of peer influence on risk taking.

青少年既表现出对同伴影响力的增强敏感性，又承担着更大的冒险精神。当前的研究提供了一种新颖的测试，用于在行为和神经水平上将这两种现象联系起来。青春期男性（N = 83，16-17岁）在fMRI扫描仪中完成了气球模拟风险任务（BART）。一周后，参与者完成了一项驾驶任务，其中他们独自驾驶，并与安全或具有风险促进作用的同伴乘客一起驾驶。结果表明，BART期间的神经反应与参与者在以后开车时对安全与危险同伴影响的行为顺应性相关。首先，前扣带回皮质（ACC）中神经激活与BART决策权相关的程度与风险同伴影响的符合性相关。另外，腹侧纹状体（VS）与风险处理区域（包括ACC和绝缘体）之间的权益调节功能连通性与在有风险的同伴影响（即对有风险的同伴影响的抵抗力）下更安全的驾驶相关，这表明VS与ACC和绝缘体之间的连通性在有风险的同伴影响下可能起到保护作用。总之，这些结果表明，青少年对风险决策的神经反应可能会调节他们的行为顺应性，以适应不同类型的同伴对冒险行为的影响。