Within-Person Imbalance of Reward Sensitivity and Executive Functioning: A Longitudinal Examination of the Dual Systems Model From Childhood to Adulthood

Abstract

The dual systems model of adolescent development asserts that the neurobiological systems underlying reward/motivational processes and cognitive control mature at different rates, resulting in an “imbalance” during adolescence whereby adolescents are biased toward rewards but unable to exert sufficient executive control in risk-taking contexts. While an imbalance between these systems is central to the dual systems model, few studies have investigated longitudinal trajectories within and between each system with age. Therefore, this investigation assessed the developmental trajectories of the reward and control systems, and directly quantified within-person differences between these systems using an accelerated longitudinal design including 166 individuals, ages 9-32, assessed biennially up to five times. Results indicate that self-reported reward sensitivity and laboratory-based executive function abilities increase rapidly during early adolescence and plateau by early adulthood. Our findings also demonstrate differences between reward and control systems that change significantly through adolescence and stabilize in early adulthood. This trajectory provides evidence of a functional gap during adolescence whereby reward processes outpace capacities for executive control in early adolescence. However, by mid-adolescence and into early adulthood, the developmental mismatch between these systems favors EF capacity. Collectively, the present report offers a novel and important contribution to our understanding of adolescent development and suggests the ability to exert top-down regulatory control over incentive-reward motivation emerges by middle adolescence. Future directions include investigating how within-person differences between reward and control systems are associated with risk-taking behaviors.