During adolescence, increases in social sensitivity, such as heightened attentional processing of social feedback, may be supported by developmental changes in neural circuitry involved in emotion regulation and cognitive control, including fronto-amygdala circuitry. Less negative fronto-amygdala circuitry during social threat processing may contribute to heightened attention to social threat in the environment. However, “real-world” implications of altered fronto-amygdala circuitry remain largely unknown. In this study, we used multiple novel methods, including an in vivo attention bias task implemented using mobile eye-tracking glasses and socially interactive fMRI task, to examine how functional connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC) during rejection and acceptance feedback from peers is associated with heightened attention towards potentially critical social evaluation in a real-world environment. Participants were 77 early adolescent girls (ages 11–13) oversampled for shy/fearful temperament. Results support the reliability of this in vivo attention task. Further, girls with more positive functional connectivity between the right amygdala and anterior PFC during both rejection and acceptance feedback attended more to potentially critical social evaluation during the attention task. Findings could suggest that dysfunction in prefrontal regulation of the amygdala’s response to salient social feedback supports heightened sensitivity to socially evaluative threat during adolescence.

在青春期，社会敏感性的增加，例如社会反馈的高度注意处理，可能受到涉及情绪调节和认知控制的神经回路（包括额杏仁核回路）的发育变化的支持。在社会威胁处理过程中，较少的负面额杏仁核电路可能有助于提高对环境中社会威胁的关注。然而，改变额杏仁核回路的“现实世界”影响在很大程度上仍然未知。在这项研究中，我们使用了多种新方法，包括使用移动眼动追踪眼镜实施的体内注意力偏差任务和社交互动 fMRI 任务，检查在来自同龄人的拒绝和接受反馈期间杏仁核和前额叶皮层 (PFC) 之间的功能连接如何与对现实世界环境中潜在关键社会评价的高度关注相关联。参与者是 77 名早期青春期女孩（11-13 岁），她们因害羞/恐惧的气质而被过度抽样。结果支持这项体内注意任务的可靠性。此外，在拒绝和接受反馈期间，右杏仁核和前 PFC 之间具有更积极功能连接的女孩在注意力任务期间更多地参加了潜在的关键社会评估。研究结果可能表明，杏仁核对突出社会反馈的反应的前额叶调节功能障碍支持了青春期对社会评价威胁的高度敏感性。