Chasing Dreams or Avoiding Ruin: Neural Activation to Goal Priming in Low-Income vs. Control Adolescents

Goals are central to our identities. An important process related to goals is self-regulation: the process of pursuing goals despite internal and external forces that might disrupt it. Adolescents have been shown to struggle with self-regulation, particularly when environmental factors such as poverty interfere with successful goal pursuit. One theory of self-regulation is regulatory focus theory (RFT). RFT consists of promotion and prevention focus. An example of promotion focus is studying to do well on a test because it is an achievement (i.e., an ideal). An example of prevention focus is studying to do well on a test because it is one’s responsibility to do so (i.e., an ought). This exploratory study followed self-regulation as defined by RFT and centered on neural correlates of goal attainment in low-income adolescents. This study compared performance on a subliminal priming fMRI task between low-income and control adolescents. It was found that the low-income adolescents showed greater activation in the mPFC, linked to error-monitoring, for ideal goals that they were close to attaining and less activation in areas associated with self-focus for ideal goals that they were not close to attaining and ought goals that they were close to attaining. These results suggest a potential role of poverty-related stressors in shifting attention away from the self and instead towards vigilant management of external responsibilities. Even during ideal goal pursuit, low-income adolescents may be more focused on correcting errors rather than maximizing positive affect.