However, a significant increase over time was detected in the right amygdala in response to sad faces; right amygdala responses also increased over time significantly more for sad expressions buy FK228 than for neutral ones (see Figure 2C). We next examined how these longitudinal changes in neural responses might be related to changes in socioemotional functioning by conducting both ROI and whole-brain regression analyses. Using the same parameter estimates of activity extracted from each a priori ROI (as described above), a difference score was

first calculated to index change over time (T2 > T1) averaging across all expressions; these scores were then correlated with change over time in RPI and IRBD. The results of these analyses indicated that VS activity increases over time were positively correlated with RPI increases over time [r(36) = 0.44, p < .005; see Figure 3]. This finding was confirmed in an independent whole-brain regression analysis, wherein change over time in RPI scores was entered as a predictor of change over time in responses to all expressions, resulting in positive correlations in VS (at a nearly identical location), temporal pole,

dorsal striatum, and the hippocampal gyrus, as well as a negative correlation in the periamgydala Z-VAD-FMK order region (see Table 2). Interestingly, the relationship between VS activity and RPI was evident only in early adolescence and not late childhood, as the correlation between RPI at T1 and parameter estimates from this same VS cluster at T1 was not significant (r(36) = −0.01), whereas

the correlation between RPI at T1 and VS at T2 was significant [r(36) = 0.31, p < .05]. Finally, although the base rate of self-reported risky behavior and delinquency was rather low, increases in IRBD from T1 to T2 correlated with decreases in VS response to all expressions [r(36) = −0.27, p = 0.05]. Vasopressin Receptor Such a relationship between more VS response and less engagement in risky behavior (as well as less susceptibility to peer influence) suggests that the VS response to affective facial displays may serve some protective function, at least during early adolescence. This might generally reflect normative neural responses to salient emotional information in the environment during this developmental stage, but given the prior research suggesting that the VS may support or index successful regulation, we suspected its role would reflect this capacity as well. To provide further evidence in support of the notion that the increased VS response may reflect emotion regulation, as indicated by a dampening of the amygdala response to affective facial displays, a psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis was conducted. This technique identifies which areas of the brain are positively or negatively coupled with a specific brain region in a task-dependent fashion.