title: Present simple and continuous: emergence of self-regulation and contextual sophistication in adolescent decision-making.
abstract: Sophisticated, intentional decision-making is a hallmark of mature, self-aware behaviour. Although neural, psychological, interpersonal, and socioeconomic elements that contribute to such adaptive, foresighted behaviour mature and/or change throughout the life-span, here we concentrate on relevant maturational processes that take place during adolescence, a period of disproportionate developmental opportunity and risk. A brief, eclectic overview is presented of recent evidence, new challenges, and current thinking on the fundamental mechanisms that mature throughout adolescence to support adaptive, self-controlled decision-making. This is followed by a proposal for the putative contribution of frontostriatal mechanisms to the moment-to-moment assembly of evaluative heuristics that mediate increased decision-making sophistication, promoting the maturation of self-regulated behaviour through adolescence and young adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, RG6 6AL, United Kingdom. Electronic address: anastasia.christakou@reading.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Anastasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Christakou
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D017072:Neostriatum / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Adolescence; Corticostriatal circuits; Decision-making; Self-regulation