NCJ Number
240527
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 36 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2012 Pages: 217-225
Date Published
March 2012
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study examined the impact of monetary incentives on inhibitory control in adolescents with early-life stress.
Abstract
Findings from the study indicated that adolescents with early-life stress responded more slowly to monetary incentives than youth in the control group across two types of responses: automatic responses (prosaccade) and cognitively controlled responses (antisaccades). The youth in the control group were found to commit fewer errors on cognitively controlled responses when monetary incentives were present compared to situations when no incentives were used while adolescents with early-life stress showed no comparable incentive-related improvement. Data for this study were obtained from a sample of youth, 17 adopted children with a history of neglect and 29 typical healthy youths, who performed a mix of automatic responses (prosaccade)/cognitively controlled responses (antisaccades) during tests with monetary incentive conditions and with no-incentive conditions. The youth performed a mixture of eye movement tasks and were examined to determine whether incentives would improve their self-regulated voluntary actions or generalize to automated motoric responses. The findings indicate that youth with early-life stress are more likely to exhibit deficiencies in the modulation of inhibitory control by reward processes. Study limitations and implications for policy and development of interventions for youth with early-life stress are discussed. Table, figures, and references