title: Adolescent brain maturation and smoking: what we know and where we're headed.
abstract: Smoking is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Smoking initiation often occurs during adolescence. This paper reviews and synthesizes adolescent development and nicotine dependence literatures to provide an account of adolescent smoking from onset to compulsive use. We extend neurobiological models of adolescent risk-taking, that focus on the interplay between incentive processing and cognitive control brain systems, through incorporating psychosocial and contextual factors specific to smoking, to suggest that adolescents are more vulnerable than adults to cigarette use generally, but that individual differences exist placing some adolescents at increased risk for smoking. Upon smoking, adolescents are more likely to continue smoking due to the increased positive effects induced by nicotine during this period. Continued use during adolescence, may be best understood as reflecting drug-related changes to neural systems underlying incentive processing and cognitive control, resulting in decision-making that is biased towards continued smoking. Persistent changes following nicotine exposure that may underlie continued dependence are described. We highlight ways that interventions may benefit from a consideration of cognitive-neuroscience findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Health and Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University, 315 Health and Human Development - East, University Park, PA 16802, United States. Electronic address: dml344@psu.edu.
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Lydon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The College of the Liberal Arts, The Pennsylvania State University, 311 Moore Building, University Park, PA 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Health and Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University, 315 Health and Human Development - East, University Park, PA 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Child
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Health and Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University, 315 Health and Human Development - East, University Park, PA 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Charles F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Geier
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D056344:Executive Function / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012907:Smoking / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy
keywords: Adolescence; Cognitive control; Incentive processing; Nicotine dependence