Social Motivation and Hippocampal-Cortical Structural Development in Adolescent Girls

Adolescence brings about significant social, emotional, and physiological transformations, including alterations in social behavior and brain structure. In girls, puberty marks the beginning of this developmental phase, which greatly impacts motivated social behavior and brain development. This research study investigates how age and pubertal maturation affect social motivational goals and hippocampal and motivation-related cortical structure in adolescent girls (n=154) over five observation points.

The findings indicate considerable variability in social motivational goals across age and pubertal development. Notably, all goals related to social behavior exhibited a steady increase over time, while goals focused on enhancing social competence showed a more irregular growth pattern as girls aged. These neurodevelopmental findings corroborate existing research, showing an increase in hippocampal volume and thinning of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) throughout adolescence.

Overall, these results demonstrate concurrent shifts in both the prioritization of various social motivational goals during adolescence and the structural changes in brain regions that support social motivation and general socio-emotional development. The implications of this research are clear; it emphasizes the critical importance of promoting positive social experiences during this pivotal stage of development, which can have long-lasting effects on adolescent well-being and social skills.