During adolescence, rapid development and reorganization of the dopaminergic system supports increasingly sophisticated reward learning and the ability to exert behavioral control. Disruptions in the ability to exert control over previously rewarded behavior may underlie some forms of adolescent psychopathology. Specifically, symptoms of externalizing psychopathology may be associated with difficulties in flexibly adapting behavior in the context of reward. However, the direct interaction of cognitive control and reward learning in adolescent psychopathology symptoms has not yet been investigated. The present study used a Research Domain Criteria framework to investigate whether behavioral and neuronal indices of inhibition to previously rewarded stimuli underlie individual differences in externalizing symptoms in N = 61 typically developing adolescents. Using a task that integrates the Monetary Incentive Delay and Go-No-Go paradigms, we observed a positive association between externalizing symptoms and activation of the left middle frontal gyrus during response inhibition to cues with a history of reward. These associations were robust to controls for internalizing symptoms and neural recruitment during inhibition of cues with no reward history. Our findings suggest that inhibitory control over stimuli with a history of reward may be a useful marker for future inquiry into the development of externalizing psychopathology in adolescence.

在青春期，多巴胺能系统的快速发展和重组可支持日益复杂的奖励学习和施加行为控制的能力。对先前奖励的行为施加控制的能力中断可能是某些形式的青少年心理病理学的基础。具体而言，心理病理学外在的症状可能与在奖励的情况下灵活适应行为的困难有关。但是，尚未研究青少年心理病理学症状中认知控制与奖励学习的直接相互作用。本研究使用“研究领域标准”框架来研究对先前奖励的刺激的抑制行为和神经元指标是否是N = 61的典型发展中青少年在外在症状方面的个体差异的基础。通过使用整合了货币激励延迟和“不去做”范例的任务，我们观察到在对具有奖励历史的线索的响应抑制期间，外在症状与左中额回的激活之间存在正相关。这些关联对于在没有奖励历史的线索抑制期间内在化症状和神经募集的对照方面具有鲁棒性。我们的发现表明，对具有奖励史的刺激的抑制性控制可能是将来询问青春期外在化精神病理学发展的有用标志。