{
  "abstract": "Social isolation and loneliness are major determinants of well-being in older adults. Shrinking social networks and age-related shifts in social behavior and decision-making may increase vulnerability to loneliness. These changes in social decision-making strategies can be conceptualized within an exploration-exploitation tradeoff framework, in which social options with known outcomes are prioritized over uncertain ones. Yet, no study has characterized how complementary decision-making strategies, undirected novelty seeking and goal-directed exploration, relate to social network constructs or are supported by distinct neural systems. These strategies capture distinct forms of decision-making: undirected novelty seeking is driven by the intrinsic salience of novel options independent of expected informational gain, whereas goal-directed exploration involves deliberately sampling uncertain options to reduce uncertainty and optimize future choices. Here, we used fMRI and a novel social bandit reinforcement task to identify dissociable social constructs and brain systems linked to undirected novelty seeking and goal-directed exploration in older adults. Undirected novelty seeking was associated with social network size and with activity of temporoparietal and mid-cingulate brain areas. Goal-directed exploration predicted subjective feelings of social connectedness and was associated with activity of anterior cingulate and prefrontal brain areas. Crucially, choice probabilities from a non-social version of the three-arm bandit task were not associated with social decision-making nor with social constructs. Our findings suggest that, in later life, dissociable social decision-making strategies, when faced with unknown options, rely on distinct neural systems supporting social network size as well as subjective feelings of social connectedness.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "University of California San Francisco"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 14,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "C. Valtierra"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Hogeveen"
    },
    {
      "name": "G. Mace"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Moreno"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Ostrand"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Griffith"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. J. Auil"
    },
    {
      "name": "P. McConnell"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. C. C. Chen"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Mitchell"
    },
    {
      "name": "G. R. Turner"
    },
    {
      "name": "N. Spreng"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Gazzaley"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. Pasquini"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bdrntz0q1tfq9.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.21.753261",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.21.753261v1.full",
  "id": "bdrntz0q1tfq9",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.21.753261v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214098123",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.21.753261v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-21",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bdrntz0q1tfq9.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:24:09Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.21.753261",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.21.753261v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Novelty-seeking and directed exploration scale with dissociable social network outcomes and brain systems in older adults",
  "title_text": "Novelty-seeking and directed exploration scale with dissociable social network outcomes and brain systems in older adults",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:24:09Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bdrntz0q1tfq9",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}