The interactive effects of peers and alcohol on functional brain connectivity in young adults.

Alcohol and peer influence are known to have independent effects on risky decision making. We investigated combined influences of peers and alcohol on functional brain connectivity and behavior. Young adults underwent fMRI while completing response inhibition (Go/No-Go) and risky driving (Stoplight) tasks.

Peers influence adolescent reward processing, but not response inhibition.

Most adolescent risk taking occurs in the presence of peers. Prior research suggests that peers alter adolescents' decision making by increasing reward sensitivity and the engagement of regions involved in the processing of rewards, primarily the striatum. However, the potential influence of peers on the capacity for impulse control, and the associated recruitment of the brain's control circuitry, has not yet been adequately examined.

Working Memory Training in Adolescents Decreases Laboratory Risk Taking in the Presence of Peers.

Adolescence is a period of heightened risk-taking relative to both adulthood and childhood, due in part to peers' increased influence on adolescent decision making. Because adolescents' choices have harmful consequences, there is great interest in specific interventions that might attenuate risk taking. We hypothesized that it might be possible to reduce adolescent risk taking through an intervention targeting the ability/tendency to engage cognitive control processes.