Relevance of Probabilistic Reversal Learning for Adolescent Drinking Trajectories

TL;DR

This study explores how adolescents learn to adapt in changing situations and finds that risky drinking is linked to reduced brain activity during learning processes.

Contribution

The study links developmental changes in reversal learning with adolescent drinking behaviors using computational modeling and fMRI.

Findings

PReL performance improved with age, driven by enhanced reward sensitivity and reduced sensitivity to losses.

Risky drinking was associated with lower medial frontal activity during feedback processing.

Alcohol use showed a negative association with reversal learning adaptivity.

Abstract

One of the many human capabilities acquired during adolescence is the adaptivity in changing environments. In this longitudinal study, we investigated this adaptivity, as measured by probabilistic reversal learning (PReL) tasks, in N = 143 adolescents at ages 14, 16 and 18. Computational modelling and functional magnetic resonance imaging were applied to identify the neurocognitive processes underlying reversal learning and its development. Previous studies have demonstrated a correlation between heavy alcohol use and impaired reversal learning. Our hypothesis was that PReL is negatively associated with current and future alcohol use and that alcohol use impairs PReL by altering neurocognitive processes. Behaviourally, PReL performance improved, which was associated with a lower probability of switching choices and was considered an adaptive process. Computationally, this was accounted for by higher learning rates, enhanced sensitivity to wins and reduced sensitivity to losses in older adolescents. Alcohol consumption increased but remained at a low level for most participants. More risky drinking was associated with less medial frontal activity elicited by reward prediction errors. These findings suggest that reversal learning may be more relevant for the maintenance or escalation of risky than for low‐level drinking. Challenges and potential solutions for longitudinal studies such as reliability are discussed.

We investigated the development of probabilistic reversal learning (PReL) in 143 adolescents (ages 14, 16, and 18) using computational modeling and fMRI. PReL performance improved with age, driven by enhanced reward sensitivity, and reduced sensitivity to losses and probability to switch. Risky drinking was associated with lower medial frontal activity during feedback processing.

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