Cohort study reveals resting-state mesolimbic connectivity in one-month-old infants predicts high-intensity pleasure at six months, indicating early neural markers of reward sensitivity.
Key Points
To examine resting-state functional connectivity within mesolimbic reward circuitry in one-month-old infants and assess its prospective association with reward-related temperament at six months.
Acquired resting-state functional MRI scans during natural sleep in N=94 one-month-old infants (58% male; mean age 4.84 weeks), retaining a mean of 11.09 minutes of low-motion data.
Assessed caregiver-reported infant temperament at six months of age, measuring high-intensity and low-intensity pleasure as markers of reward sensitivity.
Neonates exhibited significant positive resting-state functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area (Cohen's d = 0.44, 95% CI [0.22, 0.65], p < 0.001).
Weaker functional connectivity between these regions at one month predicted higher levels of high-intensity pleasure at six months (β = -0.32, 95% CI [-0.54, -0.10], p = 0.004).
Functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area showed no significant relationship with low-intensity pleasure (β = -0.01, 95% CI [-0.24, 0.21], p = 0.908).