Forming and maintaining friendships is one of the most important developmental tasks in adolescence. Supportive and high-quality friendships have been related to positive developmental outcomes and mental health, both concurrently and in the long term. Friendships also protect against negative effects of adverse experiences, such as peer victimization and internalizing behaviors. Despite this ample evidence relating friendships to well-being, we know relatively little about the underlying mechanisms involved. In this article, I review brain imaging research on friendships and highlight its contribution to our understanding of how interactions with friends relate to well-being. Studies suggest that friendships involve reward and motivational processes (involving the ventral striatum and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex), and self- and other-related mentalizing processes (involving the medial prefrontal cortex and the temporoparietal regions). I conclude with suggestions for research on how neural patterns relate to individual differences in psychosocial outcomes and mental health.

中文翻译：

---

友谊的力量：从神经科学的角度看友谊的发展意义

建立和维持友谊是青春期最重要的发展任务之一。支持性和高质量的友谊与积极的发展成果和心理健康有关，无论是同时还是长期。友谊还可以防止不良经历的负面影响，例如同伴受害和内化行为。尽管有充分的证据将友谊与幸福联系起来，但我们对所涉及的潜在机制知之甚少。在这篇文章中，我回顾了关于友谊的大脑成像研究，并强调了它对我们理解与朋友的互动如何与幸福感相关的贡献。研究表明，友谊涉及奖励和激励过程（涉及腹侧纹状体和腹内侧前额叶皮层），以及自我和其他相关的心智化过程（涉及内侧前额叶皮层和颞顶叶区域）。最后，我提出了关于神经模式如何与心理社会结果和心理健康的个体差异相关的研究建议。