{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,23]],"date-time":"2026-10-23T21:18:34Z","timestamp":1792790314600,"version":"4.5.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]]},"group-title":"Neuroscience","reference-count":86,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790121600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Institute on Aging","award":["R00AG065457"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R00AG065457"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/049v75w11","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Susan McKinnon Foundation","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/001sc0m08","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"David Dolby and the Dolby family"},{"name":"National Institute on Drug Abuse","award":["T32DA007250"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["T32DA007250"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00fq5cm18","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>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.<\/jats:p>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Significance statement<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Loneliness and social isolation are major threats to healthy aging. Understanding social decision-making strategies and their neural underpinning in older adults is essential to develop novel interventions targeting these major risk factors for negative outcomes in later life. Using fMRI and a social reinforcement bandit task, we show that undirected novelty seeking is linked to social network size, while goal-directed exploration is linked to subjective feelings of social connectedness. Both behaviors rely on distinct, distributed brain networks spanning brain areas relevant to decision making and social cognition.<\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.09.21.753261","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T21:10:30Z","timestamp":1790197830000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Novelty-seeking and directed exploration scale with dissociable social network outcomes and brain systems in older adults"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"given":"Christian","family":"Valtierra","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jeremy","family":"Hogeveen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gabriella","family":"Mace","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Samantha","family":"Moreno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Avery","family":"Ostrand","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sydney","family":"Griffith","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria Jos\u00e9","family":"Auil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Patrick","family":"McConnell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joseph","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jennifer","family":"Mitchell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gary R.","family":"Turner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"R. 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