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Social Defeat Stress Model for Adolescent C57BL/6 Male and Female Mice
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Decision-making in the adolescent brain.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore1, Trevor W Robbins

  • 1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK. s.blakemore@ucl.ac.uk

Nature Neuroscience
|August 30, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Adolescent risky decision-making is influenced by a developing brain. Impulse control matures slowly, while the reward system develops rapidly, making teens more sensitive to rewards and social influences.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Adolescence involves significant risky decision-making.
  • Early research identified the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in adult decision-making.
  • Recent studies dissect decision-making into value representation, response selection, learning, and socio-affective factors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate the components of decision-making in the adolescent brain.
  • Examine developmental trajectories of cognitive control and reward systems.
  • Understand the influence of affective and social contexts on adolescent choices.

Main Methods:

  • Review of recent neuroimaging and lesion studies in adolescents.
  • Analysis of developmental dissociation between cognitive control and reward circuitry.
  • Examination of factors modulating adolescent decision-making, such as peer presence and emotional states.

Main Results:

  • Adolescent impulse control and response inhibition develop linearly and slowly.
  • The adolescent reward system shows nonlinear development and hyper-responsiveness to rewards.
  • Decision-making in adolescents is significantly influenced by emotion and social context ('hot' contexts).

Conclusions:

  • A developmental dissociation exists between cognitive control and reward system maturation in adolescence.
  • Adolescent decision-making is uniquely sensitive to affective and social modulation.
  • Understanding these developmental changes is crucial for addressing risky behaviors in teenagers.