The adolescent brain. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by suboptimal decisions and actions that give rise to an increased incidence of unintentional injuries and violence, alcohol and drug abuse, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Traditional neurobiological and cognitive explanations for adolescent behavior have failed to account for the nonlinear changes in behavior observed during adolescence, relative to childhood and adulthood. This review provides a biologically plausible conceptualization of the neural mechanisms underlying these nonlinear changes in behavior, as a heightened responsiveness to incentives while impulse control is still relatively immature during this period. Recent human imaging and animal studies provide a biological basis for this view, suggesting differential development of limbic reward systems relative to top-down control systems during adolescence relative to childhood and adulthood. This developmental pattern may be exacerbated in those adolescents with a predisposition toward risk-taking, increasing the risk for poor outcomes.

publication date

  • January 1, 2008

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC2500212

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 40149111167

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.003

PubMed ID

  • 18688292

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 28

issue

  • 1