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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 13, 2026

A Conflict Model of Reward-seeking Behavior in Male Rats

A Conflict Model of Reward-seeking Behavior in Male Rats

Published on: February 20, 2019

A unique adolescent response to reward prediction errors.

Jessica R Cohen¹, Robert F Asarnow, Fred W Sabb

¹Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA. jrcohen@berkeley.edu

Nature Neuroscience

|May 18, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Adolescents show heightened sensitivity to rewards, driven by increased prediction error signals in the brain. This suggests that dopamine plays a key role in adolescent reward-seeking behaviors.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Developmental Psychology
Adolescent Behavior

Background:

Adolescents exhibit heightened reward sensitivity.
The specific neural mechanisms underlying this hypersensitivity are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate which aspect of reward processing contributes to adolescent hypersensitivity to rewards.
To differentiate between decision value and prediction error signals in adolescent reward processing.

Main Methods:

Separated neural signals for decision value and prediction error.
Analyzed striatal activity during reward processing tasks in adolescents.

Main Results:

Neural prediction error signals in the striatum peaked during adolescence.
Neural decision value signals showed variability dependent on the modeling approach.
Heightened dopaminergic prediction error responsivity was observed.

Conclusions:

Increased prediction error responsivity in the striatum is a key neural correlate of adolescent reward seeking.
Dopamine's role in prediction error signaling may underlie adolescent hypersensitivity to rewards.