How an adolescent’s brain reacts to faces may predict their social future

It’s been said that eyes are a window to the soul, but new research has found that an adolescent’s brain response to a face might open a window to their social future. A new study at the University of California, Davis Center for Mind and Brain found that high activity in the amygdala when an adolescent looks at a face showing emotion predicts their social health two years later. Increased amygdala activity for girls predicted more involvement with their peers but less involvement for boys.

The amygdala is best known for the fight-or-flight response and controls strong emotional reactions, especially fear. It is also one of the core brain regions that process information from faces.

“Faces contain a lot of social information, and humans process that information perceptually and cognitively really, really quickly,” said Myles N. Arrington, lead author and postdoctoral fellow working with professor Amanda E. Guyer, a co-author who directs the Teen Experiences, Emotions & Neurodevelopment (TEEN) Lab. “That makes it great for neuroscience because, as soon as you show a face to a person, it doesn’t take long for their brain to respond.”

The paper was recently published in the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience with UC Davis co-authors Johnna R. Swartz and Jeffrey R. Fine.

The social brain and future social health

The “social brain” is a neuroscience concept that specific brain regions underlie nearly every aspect of social behavior. These brain regions help us recognize people we know and guide us in understanding the thoughts of others as well as our own. Their development during adolescence plays an important role in later peer relationships, but exactly how has been unclear.

This study tested the social brain’s impact on future social health with data from 5,832 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, or ABCD, Study. Participants were 8 to 11 years old from 2017 to 2018 when they were shown images of faces or places while fMRI measured blood flow in their brains. Data on their social health was collected two years later.

The team compared brain activity when participants viewed faces, which contain a high amount of social information, with places, which contain none. They also compared brain activity when participants viewed faces showing positive or negative emotions with faces showing no emotion.

In addition to finding that high amygdala activation predicted that boys and girls would move in opposite social directions two years later, the analysis showed that the amygdala was the only brain region that predicted a participant’s future social health.

Building on teen social health research

In a prior study, the team identified social health profiles that grouped teens by a mix of factors, including their number of friends, who was in their friend group and how much conflict they had with peers. Activation in the amygdala when viewing faces showing emotion predicted which of those profiles participants would fall into two years later.

Arrington said the study provides valuable insight into how the brain develops during adolescence, a period when different parts of the brain develop at different rates. The results suggest that these developmental differences between boys and girls may play a role in social health later on.

“For adolescents in particular, there’s a lot of development happening in this age range in the amygdala specifically, but it doesn’t look the same for everyone,” said Arrington.

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Lisa Lock

BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator. Editing for Science X since 2021.

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Andrew Zinin

Master’s in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X’s editorial success.

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