ArticleHuman brain mapping2015
The accumbofrontal tract: Diffusion tensor imaging characterization and developmental change from childhood to adulthood.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Neural correlates of impulsivity in bipolar disorder: A systematic review and clinical implications.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Developing a multi-modal neuroimaging-based BrainAge model across childhood.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Sexual Dimorphisms in Neurodevelopment May Affect TBI Recovery in Pediatric Patients.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Review
- Connection Failure: Differences in White Matter Microstructure Are Associated withInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Disentangling the neurobiological bases of temporal impulsivity in Huntington's disease.Brain and behavior · 2024Article
- Functional Organization of Auditory and Reward Systems in Aging.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2023Article
- White matter microstructural integrity continues to develop from adolescence to young adulthood in mice and humans: Same phenotype, different mechanism.Neuroimage. Reports · 2023Article
- Corticostriatal Connectivity during Prosocial Decision-making Relates to Giving Behavior during Adolescence.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2023Article
- Adolescent reinforcement-learning trajectories predict cocaine-taking behaviors in adult male and female rats.Psychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Structure-function coupling within the reward network in preschool children predicts executive functioning in later childhood.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2022Article
- Is Adolescence a Sensitive Period for the Development of Incentive-Reward Motivation?Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2022Review
- Accumbofrontal tract integrity is related to early life adversity and feedback learning.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Article
- Associations between different white matter properties and reward-based performance modulation.Brain structure & function · 2021Article
- Adolescent Neurodevelopment and Vulnerability to Psychosis.Biological psychiatry · 2021Review
- Quantitative Electroencephalogram Standardization: A Sex- and Age-Differentiated Normative Database.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Article
- Individual differences in accumbofrontal tract integrity relate to risky decisions under stress in adolescents and adults.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2020Review
- Reinforcement Learning during Adolescence in Rats.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2020Article
- History of childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced fractional anisotropy of the accumbofrontal 'reward' tract in healthy adults.Brain imaging and behavior · 2020Article
- Imaging-genetics of sex differences in ASD: distinct effects of OXTR variants on brain connectivity.Translational psychiatry · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
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Abstract
The presence of an anatomical connection between the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum, forming a so-called reward network, is well established across species. This connection has important implications for reward processing and is relevant to a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Moreover, white matter (WM) is known to continue to mature across adolescence and into early adulthood, and developmental change in the reward network is an important component of models of decision making and risk taking. Despite the importance of this connection, the underlying WM has only recently been characterized in humans histologically, and not yet in-vivo using brain imaging. Here, we implemented diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in a large cross-sectional sample of 295 healthy individuals ages 8-68 to further characterize the WM of this connection and its development from childhood into adulthood. We demonstrate that the accumbofrontal tract, connecting the orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens, can be identified using standard DTI sequences. Using Poisson modeling, we show that the accumbofrontal tract undergoes significant change across the lifespan, with males showing a higher and earlier peak compared to females. Moreover, the change occurs in a pattern consistent with developmental models of decision-making. These findings support the hypothesis that developmental differences in WM integrity may be a contributing factor to the observed risk taking that occurs in adolescence. The accumbofrontal tract is not yet included in standard WM atlases, but may be important for inclusion in studies investigating fronto-striatal networks, as well as in investigations of substance abuse and decision making.
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Registered trials
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