Striatal and hippocampal contributions to value-based learning in adolescence

Adaptive value-based learning is a complex challenge supported by neurobiological systems based in the striatum and hippocampus, with important implications for both everyday behaviors and for mental health. In adults, these systems have been shown to compete, complement, and integrate; less is known about this interplay earlier in development. Here, we discuss representative empirical evidence for the roles of striatum-PFC and hippocampus-PFC systems and their interactions in developing goal-directed behaviors during adolescence. These systems are also implicated in value-based learning alterations in adolescent-emergent mental health disorders. More focus on interactions between value-based learning systems in adolescence, a time of sensitivity to reward and opportunity for mental health interventions, is necessary to support development across healthy and clinical populations. We propose that differential timing of striatum-PFC and hippocampus-PFC network maturation may shape distinct adolescent behavioral phenotypes.