Although executive functioning has traditionally been studied in “cool” settings removed from emotional contexts, it is highly relevant in “hot” emotionally salient settings such as reward processing. Furthermore, brain structures related to “cool” executive functioning and “hot” reward-related processes develop simultaneously, yet little is known about how executive functioning modulates neural processes related to reward processing during adolescence, a period of time when these systems are still developing. The present study examined how performance on “cool” behavioral executive functioning measures moderates neural reward processing. Youths (N = 43, M_age = 13.74 years, SD = 1.81 years) completed a child-friendly monetary incentive delay task during fMRI acquisition that captures neural responses to reward anticipation and to reward receipt and omission. Performance on inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility measures, captured outside the scanner, was used to predict brain activation and seed-based connectivity (ventral striatum and amygdala). Across analyses, we found that executive functioning moderated youths’ neural responses during both reward anticipation and performance feedback, predominantly with respect to amygdala connectivity with prefrontal/frontal and temporal structures, supporting previous theoretical models of brain development during adolescence. Overall, youths with worse executive functioning had more pronounced differences in neural activation and connectivity between task conditions compared with youths with better executive functioning. This study contributes to elucidating the relationship between “cool” and “hot” processes and our findings demonstrate that simple executive functioning skills moderate more complex processes that involve incorporation of numerous skills in an emotionally salient context, such as reward processing.

尽管执行功能传统上是在远离情绪环境的“冷”环境中研究的，但它在“热”的情绪突出环境中高度相关，例如奖励处理。此外，与“酷”执行功能和“热”奖励相关过程相关的大脑结构同时发展，但对于青春期执行功能如何调节与奖励处理相关的神经过程知之甚少，而这些系统仍在发育的时期. 本研究检查了“酷”行为执行功能测量的表现如何调节神经奖励处理。青年（N = 43，M_年龄= 13.74 岁，SD= 1.81 岁）在 fMRI 采集期间完成了一项儿童友好的金钱激励延迟任务，该任务捕获了对奖励预期和奖励接收和遗漏的神经反应。在扫描仪之外捕获的抑制控制和认知灵活性测量的表现被用来预测大脑激活和基于种子的连接（腹侧纹状体和杏仁核）。通过分析，我们发现执行功能在奖励预期和绩效反馈期间调节了青少年的神经反应，主要是关于杏仁核与前额叶/额叶和颞叶结构的连接，支持之前青春期大脑发育的理论模型。全面的，与执行功能较好的青少年相比，执行功能较差的青少年在任务条件之间的神经激活和连通性差异更明显。这项研究有助于阐明“酷”和“热”过程之间的关系，我们的研究结果表明，简单的执行功能技能可以调节更复杂的过程，这些过程涉及在情绪突出的环境中整合多种技能，例如奖励处理。