Modernizing Conceptions of Valuation and Cognitive-Control Deployment in Adolescent Risk Taking

Heightened risk taking in adolescence has long been attributed to valuation systems overwhelming the deployment of cognitive control. However, this explanation of why adolescents engage in risk taking is insufficient given increasing evidence that risk-taking behavior can be strategic and involve elevated cognitive control. We argue that applying the expected-value-of-control computational model to adolescent risk taking can clarify under what conditions control is elevated or diminished during risky decision-making. Through this lens, we review research examining when adolescent risk taking might be due to—rather than a failure of—effective cognitive control and suggest compelling ways to test such hypotheses. This effort can resolve when risk taking arises from an immaturity of the control system itself, as opposed to arising from differences in what adolescents value relative to adults. It can also identify promising avenues for channeling cognitive control toward adaptive outcomes in adolescence

The Adolescent Brain : A second window to opportunity

Scientific advances over the past decade have contributed to a much greater understanding of the growth of the human brain from birth to adulthood. Latest evidence illuminates the adolescent brain as a ‘work in progress’, and adolescence as a critical period to build on early investments, offering a second chance for those who have not fared well in early childhood. Neuroscientific research in particular is integral to improving our understanding of the cerebral transformations that take place during this time and how they are influenced by interactions between the evolving adolescent brain and the environment in which it develops. In the field of early childhood development (ECD), neuroscientific evidence featured prominently in galvanizing positive change for children through changes in policy and programming and more of this type of evidence is needed to also provide answers regarding critical intervention junctures and approaches during adolescence. In this compendium, eight experts in adolescent neuroscience and development summarize scientific and programmatic evidence from their work, offering an insight into how to maximize the potential of adolescents during this period of opportunity, but also vulnerability. It builds on the discussions initiated at a one-day symposium entitled The Adolescent Brain: A second window of opportunity, held on 4 May 2016 at UNICEF headquarters in New York. The event brought together specialists to review the state of science related to the adolescent brain, specifically focusing on how to guide future responses to programming and policy and providing directions for research to further advance these aims. The advances and investments made in ECD must be continued for children in their second decade of life. Adolescence is a time of both opportunity and vulnerability. Many problematic and risky behaviours are activated in adolescence, including substance abuse, and behaviours that can lead to sexually transmitted diseases HIV/AIDS, road injuries, drowning and other negative outcomes (Mokdad, 2016). It is a time when mental illness and the incidence of suicide sharply increases (Petroni, Patel and Patton, 2016) and when experiences of bullying, inter-personal violence and exclusion often leave a long-term mark on the individual (Lupien, 2012). The commentaries in this compendium together summarize the state of adolescent neuroscience, reflecting on what is known about positive and negative impacts on brain development, including the effects of poverty, violence, stress, technology, but also socio-emotional learning, meditation, nutrition, counselling and positive relationships. They go beyond the science to discuss its application for maximizing the potential of adolescents. This compendium is designed to encourage further dialogue stimulated by new thinking grounded in adolescent neuroscience research and its application. It aims to challenge readers to bring science to bear on programme interventions and public policies for adolescents. An improved understanding from neuroscience is well-placed to strengthen behavioural evidence and provide a more complete picture of adolescent behaviour and development, while also stimulating fresh thinking and approaches that can be tested

Neurodevelopmental Changes in Parent and Peer Influence on Risky Decision Making across Adolescence

Parents and peers play an important role in the type of risk attitudes and behaviors that adolescents learn, internalize, and act upon, yet little is known about how these various socialization mechanisms interact and inform risky decision making across development. In this dissertation, I present a program of research investigating neurodevelopmental changes in the value, internalization, and socialization of parents’ and peers’ risk attitudes across adolescence. Study 1 shows that, unlike susceptibility to parent influence, susceptibility to peer influence is sensitive to individual differences in the value associated with peers’ risk attitudes during early adolescence, an effect that went away by mid-adolescence. Study 2 suggests that adolescents consider their own risk attitudes and the internalized risk attitudes of their parents—but not their peers—when constructing their own risk attitudes, particularly in early adolescence. Study 3 demonstrates that adolescents largely stand firm in their own attitudes under conflicting influences and conform to parents and peers selectively based on the type of behavior and influence. These studies provide novel evidence for the role of midline cortical brain regions (e.g., ventromedial and medial prefrontal cortices) in integrating others’ risk attitudes across development and across social contexts. Taken together, this dissertation identifies key neurodevelopmental processes in adolescence that can shift the motivational value away from external influences to individual preferences during risky decision making.Doctor of Philosoph

A Neural Correlate of Strategic Exploration at the Onset of Adolescence.

The onset of adolescence is associated with an increase in the behavioral tendency to explore and seek novel experiences. However, this exploration has rarely been quantified, and its neural correlates during this period remain unclear. Previously, activity within specific regions of the rostrolateral PFC (rlPFC) in adults has been shown to correlate with the tendency for exploration. Here we investigate a recently developed task to assess individual differences in strategic exploration, defined as the degree to which the relative uncertainty of rewards directs responding toward less well-evaluated choices, in 62 girls aged 11-13 years from whom resting state fMRI data were obtained in a separate session. Behaviorally, this task divided our participants into groups of explorers (n = 41) and nonexplorers (n = 21). When seed ROIs within the rlPFC were used to interrogate resting state fMRI data, we identified a lateralized connection between the rlPFC and posterior putamen/insula whose strength differentiated explorers from nonexplorers. On the basis of Granger causality analyses, the preponderant direction of influence may proceed from posterior to anterior. Together, these data provide initial evidence concerning the neural basis of exploratory tendencies at the onset of adolescence

A Neural Correlate of Strategic Exploration at the Onset of Adolescence

The onset of adolescence is associated with an increase in the behavioral tendency to explore and seek novel experiences. However, this exploration has rarely been quantified, and its neural correlates during this period remain unclear. Previously, activity within specific regions of the rostrolateral PFC (rlPFC) in adults has been shown to correlate with the tendency for exploration. Here we investigate a recently developed task to assess individual differences in strategic exploration, defined as the degree to which the relative uncertainty of rewards directs responding toward less well-evaluated choices, in 62 girls aged 11-13 years from whom resting state fMRI data were obtained in a separate session. Behaviorally, this task divided our participants into groups of explorers (n = 41) and nonexplorers (n = 21). When seed ROIs within the rlPFC were used to interrogate resting state fMRI data, we identified a lateralized connection between the rlPFC and posterior putamen/insula whose strength differentiated explorers from nonexplorers. On the basis of Granger causality analyses, the preponderant direction of influence may proceed from posterior to anterior. Together, these data provide initial evidence concerning the neural basis of exploratory tendencies at the onset of adolescence