Adolescence is a period during which reward sensitivity is heightened. Studies suggest that there are individual differences in adolescent reward-seeking behavior, attributable to a variety of factors, including temperament. This study investigated the neurobiological underpinnings of risk and reward evaluation as they relate to self-reported pleasure derived from novel experiences on the revised Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (EATQ-R). Healthy participants (N = 265, ~50% male), aged 12-17 years, underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a modified Wheel of Fortune task, where they evaluated choices with varying probability of winning different monetary rewards. Across all participants, there was increased brain response in salience, reward, and cognitive control circuitry when evaluating choices with larger (compared with moderate) difference in risk/reward. Whole brain and a priori region-of-interest regression analyses revealed that individuals reporting higher novelty seeking had greater activation in bilateral ventral striatum, left middle frontal gyrus, and bilateral posterior cingulate cortex when evaluating the choices for largest difference in risk/reward. These novelty seeking associations with brain response were seen in the absence of temperament-related differences in decision-making behavior. Thus, while heightened novelty seeking in adolescents might be associated with greater neural sensitivity to risk/reward, accompanying increased activation in cognitive control regions might regulate reward-driven risk-taking behavior. More research is needed to determine whether individual differences in brain activation associated with novelty seeking are related to decision making in more ecologically valid settings.

青春期是奖赏敏感性增强的时期。研究表明，青少年寻求奖励的行为存在个体差异，这可归因于多种因素，包括气质。这项研究调查了风险和回报评估的神经生物学基础，因为它们与修订后的早期青春期气质问卷（EATQ-R）中的新体验所产生的自我报告的快乐有关。年龄 12-17 岁的健康参与者（N = 265，约 50% 男性）在修改后的命运之轮任务中接受了功能性磁共振成像，他们评估了赢得不同金钱奖励的不同概率的选择。在所有参与者中，当评估风险/回报差异较大（与中等差异相比）的选择时，大脑在显着性、奖励和认知控制回路方面的反应都会增强。全脑和先验感兴趣区域回归分析表明，在评估风险/回报差异最大的选择时，报告较高新奇性寻求的个体双侧腹侧纹状体、左额中回和双侧后扣带皮层的激活程度更高。这些寻求新奇事物与大脑反应的关联是在决策行为中不存在与气质相关的差异的情况下发现的。因此，虽然青少年对新奇事物的高度追求可能与对风险/奖励的神经敏感性更高有关，但伴随认知控制区域激活的增加可能会调节奖励驱动的冒险行为。需要更多的研究来确定与寻求新奇事物相关的大脑激活的个体差异是否与在更生态有效的环境中做出的决策有关。