Frontostriatal Maturation Predicts Cognitive Control Failure to Appetitive Cues in Adolescents

Adolescent risk-taking is a public health issue that increases the odds of poor lifetime outcomes. One factor thought to influence adolescents' propensity for risk-taking is an enhanced sensitivity to appetitive cues, relative to an immature capacity to exert sufficient cognitive control. We tested this hypothesis by characterizing interactions among ventral striatal, dorsal striatal, and prefrontal cortical regions with varying appetitive load using fMRI scanning. Child, teen, and adult participants performed a go/no-go task with appetitive (happy faces) and neutral cues (calm faces). Impulse control to neutral cues showed linear improvement with age, whereas teens showed a nonlinear reduction in impulse control to appetitive cues. This performance decrement in teens was paralleled by enhanced activity in the ventral striatum. Prefrontal cortical recruitment correlated with overall accuracy and showed a linear response with age for no-go versus go trials. Connectivity analyses identified a ventral frontostriatal circuit including the inferior frontal gyrus and dorsal striatum during no-go versus go trials. Examining recruitment developmentally showed that teens had greater between-subject ventral-dorsal striatal coactivation relative to children and adults for happy no-go versus go trials. These findings implicate exaggerated ventral striatal representation of appetitive cues in adolescents relative to an intermediary cognitive control response. Connectivity and coactivity data suggest these systems communicate at the level of the dorsal striatum differentially across development. Biased responding in this system is one possible mechanism underlying heightened risk-taking during adolescence

A Model for Analysing and Grading the Quality of Scientific Authorities Presented to State Legislative Committees

Longitudinal studies have confirmed that human brains continue to mature and restructure throughout adolescence, with the prefrontal cortex – responsible for executive functions – maturing into an individual’s twenties. Studies examining adolescent decision-making demonstrate that young people prioritise rewards when assessing risk, take more risks in ‘hot’ contexts and are more likely to take risks when in the presence of their peers. These findings have motivated arguments that the immaturity of an adolescent brain could impact on culpability for criminal offences; a point recognised by the US Supreme Court in 2005: From a moral standpoint it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor's character deficiencies will be reformed. Indeed, “[t]he relevance of youth as a mitigating factor derives from the fact that the signature qualities of youth are transient; as individuals mature, the impetuousness and recklessness that may dominate in younger years can subside.” Since 2007, states have begun to ‘Raise the Age’ and move towards a national consensus of 18 for the upper age limit of juvenile court jurisdiction. Vermont has even gone beyond this, raising the age limit to 20. Little is known, however, about the extent to which, one, the evidential body of adolescent brain science is informing this legislative movement, or, two, robust science is presented to legislative decision-makers and by whom. We have developed a model for analysing and grading the quality of scientific arguments and authorities presented to legislative committees examining ‘Raise the Age’ legislation and have applied it to four states: Connecticut, Vermont, Michigan and Wisconsin. The former two were selected as states which had already, or were repeatedly attempting, to raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction above 18 and the latter two were states which, as of 2018, had not reached the national consensus of 18. Almost 700 pieces of evidence were examined, assessing criteria including whether studies were peer-reviewed, performed in humans, randomised control trials or whether they were opinion-based. Testimony was also categorised by author and a thematic analysis conducted. Our research has shown that campaign organisations, academia, religious groups, police chiefs and parents regularly provide testimony in this public process and that the themes of funding, recidivism and serious offences are repeatedly referenced. The model tells us that overall, although detailed scientific arguments about brain science and culpability are made to the legislature, poor quality evidence is provided to support these and, most often, there is a lack of scientific evidence entirely. This paper provides a summary of the results from Connecticut, Michigan, Vermont and Wisconsin. Part I discusses the methodology and development of the analysis model and Part II offers conclusions about the quality of science referenced, who participates, and the themes discussed in public committee testimony

Is there heightened sensitivity to social reward in adolescence?

During adolescence, individuals are particularly susceptible to social influence. One explanation for this is that social stimuli have a heightened reward value at this age. To date, most evidence for heightened social reward in adolescence is found in the animal literature. Human adolescents show increased activation in fronto-striatal brain regions to rewarding social stimuli, but also to negative social stimuli, suggesting that adolescence may be a period of hypersensitivity to all social stimuli. Additional evidence from humans and animals suggest that the presence of others may heighten the value of non-social rewards; these findings should be incorporated into theories of social reward in adolescence

Comparison of Executive Functions in Addicted Young People who Referred to Addiction Treatment Camps with Students Ardebill

Background and aim of the study: The present study compares the executive functions between pre-university male students and young addicted people who referred to addiction treatment camps.Method: The study is a causal-comparative study. The sample of study consisted of two groups of 25 male students and young addicted people who referred to addiction treatment camps of Ardebill city in 2014-2015, with coordination of sex, education and public health factors. Data was collected through researcher general health questionnaire for primary screening, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Stroop Color Word Test and the Wechsler Digit Span subscale. Data were analyzed by multivariate variance analysis. Findings of the study: data analysis indicated that there is a significant difference between the executive functions of young addicted people who are in addiction treatment camps and healthy students.Conclusion: According to the gathered results, it\u27s likely that in addicts young, existence of neuropsychological anomalies such as weakness in executive function of response inhibition, Set shifting and updating of working memory, resulting in their weak performance compared to normal peers in the executive functions

The Teenage Brain: Peer Influences on Adolescent Decision Making

Research efforts to account for elevated risk behavior among adolescents have arrived at an exciting new stage. Moving beyond laboratory studies of age differences in “cool” cognitive processes related to risk perception and reasoning, new approaches have shifted focus to the influence of social and emotional factors on adolescent neurocognition. We review recent research suggesting that adolescent risk-taking propensity derives in part from a maturational gap between early adolescent remodeling of the brain's socio-emotional reward system and a gradual, prolonged strengthening of the cognitive control system. At a time when adolescents spend an increasing amount of time with their peers, research suggests that peer-related stimuli may sensitize the reward system to respond to the reward value of risky behavior. As the cognitive control system gradually matures over the course of the teenage years, adolescents grow in their capacity to coordinate affect and cognition, and to exercise self-regulation even in emotionally arousing situations. These capacities are reflected in gradual growth in the capacity to resist peer influence

Kecerdasan emosi sosial kemahiran penyesuaian diri dalam kalangan pelajar sekolah menengah

Social emotional intelligence, a combination between emotion and social intelligence, is a very important aspect of one's self. It is divided into five components which is intrapersonal, interpersonal, stress management, adaptation and general mood. Social emotional intelligence directly affects the behavior, emotion and decision making of an individual. Secondary school students are a group of early teenager and still in the process of identity formation. Therefore, it is important to know the social emotional intelligence of adaptability skills especially among school students as it has long-term impact on their performance. The main objective of this study is to examine the social emotional intelligence scores among high school students in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The sample in this study consisted of Form One to Form Six students from various schools around Kota Kinabalu. A set of questionnaire used in this study is The Emotional Quotient Inventory Youth Version (EQ-i: YV) designed by Bar-On and Parker (2000) contains 60 questions with four likert scale. The data obtained were analyzed using the IBM SPSS version 24.0. The results of this study showed that the social emotional intelligence as a whole is at a moderate level. Meanwhile, there are differences in adaptability skills between male and female students, where the mean score for male students is higher than female students. As for the implication, related parties such as ministries of education, parents and the community can obtain relevant information for the purpose of implementation of programs and activities to enhance emotional intelligence and adaptability skills that are appropriate to the current generation Z

Behavioral Assessment of Emotion Discrimination, Emotion Regulation, and Cognitive Control in Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood

Emotion discrimination, emotion regulation, and cognitive control are three related, yet separable processes that emerge over the course of development. The current study tested 100 children, adolescents, and adults on an Emotional Go/Nogo task, illustrating the ability of this paradigm to identify the unique developmental patterns for each of these three processes in the context of both positive (happy) and negative emotions (fear, sad, and anger), across three different age groups. Consistent with previous literature, our findings show that emotion discrimination and regulatory abilities (both cognitive control and emotion regulation) improve steadily for each age group, with each age group showing unique patterns of performance. The findings suggest that emotion regulation is constructed from basic cognition control and emotion discrimination skills. The patterns of behavior from the Emotional Go/Nogo task provide normative benchmark data across a wide range of emotions that can be used for future behavioral and neuroimaging studies that examine the developmental construction of emotion regulatory processes

Learning in anticipation of reward and punishment: perspectives across the human lifespan

Learning to act to receive reward and to withhold to avoid punishment has been found to be easier than learning the opposite contingencies in young adults. To what extent this type of behavioral adaptation might develop during childhood and adolescence and differ during aging remains unclear. We therefore tested 247 healthy individuals across the human life span (7-80 years) with an orthogonalized valenced go/no-go learning task. Computational modeling revealed that peak performance in young adults was attributable to greater sensitivity to both reward and punishment. However, in children and adolescents, we observed an increased bias toward action but not reward sensitivity. By contrast, reduced learning in midlife and older adults was accompanied by decreased reward sensitivity and especially punishment sensitivity along with an age-related increase in the Pavlovian bias. These findings reveal distinct motivation-dependent learning capabilities across the human life span, which cannot be probed using conventional go/reward no-go/punishment style paradigms that have important implications in lifelong education

Impact of alcohol use on inhibitory control (and vice versa) during adolescence and young adulthood

Aims: Adolescence is usually the time when individuals first drink alcohol and this has been associated with relatively weak or immature inhibitory control. This review examines the changes on brain development and inhibitory function that take place during adolescence and youth as well as the relationship between inhibitory control and alcohol use at this early age. Methods: Narrative review of the chief studies related to (a) the development of inhibitory control during adolescence, (b) the deficits in the inhibitory ability in alcohol use disorders and (c) the effects of acute alcohol intake and binge drinking on inhibitory control in adolescents and young adults. Results: Inhibitory control processes are developing during adolescence and youth. Poor inhibitory functions may predispose the individual to alcohol misuse. Likewise, acute and binge alcohol drinking may impair the inhibitory control and compromise the ability to prevent or stop behaviour related to alcohol use. Conclusion: Poor inhibitory control can be both the cause and the consequence of excessive alcohol use. Adolescence and young adulthood may be a particularly vulnerable period due to (a) the weak or immature inhibitory functioning typical of this stage may contribute to the inability of the individual to control alcohol use and (b) alcohol consumption per se may alter or interrupt the proper development of inhibitory control leading to a reduced ability to regulate alcohol intake. Further longitudinal research is needed to evaluate the interaction between inhibitory control dysfunction and alcohol use in both situationsThe study was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PSI2011-22575) and the Ministerio de Sanidad y Política Social, Plan Nacional sobre Drogas (exp 2010/134)S

Neural perspectives on cognitive control development during childhood and adolescence

Pathways through Adolescenc