July 27, 2007 The capacity to resist peer pressure in early
adolescence may depend on the strength of connections between
certain areas of the brain, according to a study carried out by
University of Nottingham researchers. New findings suggest that
enhanced connections across brain regions involved in decision-
making may underlie an individual's ability to resist the
influence of peers. The study, published in the July 25 issue of
The Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that brain regions which
regulate different aspects of behaviour are more interconnected
in children with high resistance to peer influence. Professor
Tomas Paus and colleagues at The University of Nottingham used
functional neuroimaging to scan adolescents while they watched
video clips of neutral or angry hand and face movements.
Previous research has shown that anger is the most easily
recognised emotion. Professor Paus and his team observed 35 ten-
year-olds with high and low resistance to peer influence,
measured by a questionnaire. The res