title: Decision-making in the adolescent brain.
abstract: Adolescence is characterized by making risky decisions. Early lesion and neuroimaging studies in adults pointed to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and related structures as having a key role in decision-making. More recent studies have fractionated decision-making processes into its various components, including the representation of value, response selection (including inter-temporal choice and cognitive control), associative learning, and affective and social aspects. These different aspects of decision-making have been the focus of investigation in recent studies of the adolescent brain. Evidence points to a dissociation between the relatively slow, linear development of impulse control and response inhibition during adolescence versus the nonlinear development of the reward system, which is often hyper-responsive to rewards in adolescence. This suggests that decision-making in adolescence may be particularly modulated by emotion and social factors, for example, when adolescents are with peers or in other affective ('hot') contexts.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK. s.blakemore@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sarah-Jayne
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Blakemore
authors.forename: Trevor W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Robbins
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012931:Social Environment