Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
ReviewNeurobiology of the Adolescent Brain and Behavior: Implications for Substance Use Disorders
Section snippets
Neurobiological Model of Adolescence
A neurobiological model of adolescent development2 that builds on rodent models13, 14 and recent imaging studies of adolescence6, 7, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 is depicted Figure 1.21 This model illustrates how subcortical and prefrontal top-down control regions must be considered together as a circuit. The cartoon shows different developmental trajectories for signaling of these regions, with limbic projections developing sooner than prefrontal control regions. According to the model, the
Phenotypic Characterization of Adolescence
The ability to resist temptation in favor of long-term goals is a form of cognitive control. Lapses in this ability have been suggested to be at the very core of adolescent risky behavior.28 Cognitive control, which includes resistance from temptation or delay of immediate gratification, has been studied in the context of social, developmental, and cognitive psychology. Developmentally, this ability has been measured by assessing how long a toddler can resist an immediate reward (e.g., a
Neurobiology of Adolescence
As denoted in our model of adolescence, two key regions implicated in cognitive and motivational behaviors are the prefrontal cortex, known to be important for cognitive control,44 and the striatum, critical in detecting and learning about novel and rewarding cues in the environment.45 We highlight recent animal and human imaging work on neurobiological changes supporting these motivational and cognitive systems across development in the context of the previous behavioral findings on the
Substance Use and Abuse in Adolescents
Adolescence marks a period of increased experimentation with drugs and alcohol,93 with alcohol being the most abused of illegal substances by teens.11, 94, 95 Early use of these substances, such as alcohol, is a reliable predictor of later dependence and abuse.96 Given the surge in alcohol dependence between adolescence and adulthood that is unequaled at any other developmental stage,97 we focus predominantly on a select review of its use and abuse in adolescents and motivational properties.
References (128)
- et al.
The adolescent brain
Dev Rev
(2008) - et al.
Biological substrates of emotional reactivity and regulation in adolescence during an emotional go-nogo task
Biol Psychiatry
(2008) Synaptic development of the cerebral cortex: implications for learning, memory and mental illness
Prog Brain Res
(1994)- et al.
Psychobiological risk factors for vulnerability to psychostimulants in human adolescents and animal models
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
(1999) The adolescent brain and age-related behavioral manifestations
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
(2000)- et al.
Amygdala and nucleus accumbens in responses to receipt and omission of gains in adults and adolescents
Neuroimage
(2005) - et al.
Adolescent risky decision-making: Neurocognitive development of reward and control regions
Neuroimage
(2010) - et al.
Developmental neurobiology of cognitive control and motivational systems
Curr Opin Neurobiol
(2010) - et al.
Neurobiology of the development of motivated behaviors in adolescence: a window into a neural systems model
Pharmacol Biochem Behav
(2009) A social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk-taking
Dev Rev
(2008)
The maturation of incentive processing and cognitive control
Pharmacol Biochem Behav
Contributions of amygdala and striatal activity in emotion regulation
Biol Psychiatry
The bivalent side of the nucleus accumbens
Neuroimage
Development of cognitive control and executive functions from 4 to 13 years: evidence from manipulations of memory, inhibition, and task switching
Neuropsychologia
Imaging the developing brain: what have we learned about cognitive development?
Trends Cogn Sci
Structural and functional brain development and its relation to cognitive development
Biol Psychol
Comparative postnatal development of dopamine D(1), D(2) and D(4) receptors in rat forebrain
Int J Dev Neurosci
Dopamine receptor pruning during the peripubertal period is not attenuated by NMDA receptor antagonism in rat
Neurosci Lett
Postnatal alterations in dopaminergic markers in the human prefrontal cortex
Neuroscience
The neural basis of drug craving: an incentive-sensitization theory of addiction
Brain Res Brain Res Rev
Pubertal development and behavior: hormonal activation of social and motivational tendencies
Brain Cogn
What has fMRI told us about the development of cognitive control through adolescence?
Brain Cogn
Maturation of widely distributed brain function subserves cognitive development
Neuroimage
Immature frontal lobe contributions to cognitive control in children: evidence from fMRI
Neuron
Weaker top-down modulation from the left inferior frontal gyrus in children
Neuroimage
Maturation of brain function associated with response inhibition
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
Age-related cognitive gains are mediated by the effects of white matter development on brain network integration
Neuroimage
Morphometric study of human cerebral cortex development
Neuropsychologia
The neural basis of financial risk taking
Neuron
Changes in cerebral functional organization during cognitive development
Curr Opin Neurobiol
Ventral striatal hyporesponsiveness during reward anticipation in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Biol Psychiatry
Research on alcohol and adolescent brain development: opportunities and future directions
Alcohol
Age at onset of alcohol use and its association with DSM-IV alcohol abuse and dependence: results from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey
J Subst Abuse
Role of dopamine, the frontal cortex and memory circuits in drug addiction: insight from imaging studies
Neurobiol Learn Mem
The social brain in adolescence
Nat Rev Neurosci
The adolescent brain
Ann N Y Acad Sci
Mapping cortical change across the human life span
Nat Neurosci
Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
Earlier development of the accumbens relative to orbitofrontal cortex might underlie risk-taking behavior in adolescents
J Neurosci
Synaptogenesis in the prefrontal cortex of rhesus monkeys
Cereb Cortex
Synaptic density in human frontal cortex—developmental changes and effects of aging
Brain Res
Transitions into underage and problem drinking: developmental processes and mechanisms between 10 and 15 years of age
Pediatrics
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United States, 2007, surveillance summaries
MMMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
Risk-taking and the adolescent brain: who is at risk?
Dev Sci
Immaturities in reward processing and its influence on inhibitory control in adolescence
Cereb Cortex
What motivates the adolescent?Brain regions mediating reward sensitivity across adolescence
Cereb Cortex
Triadic model of the neurobiology of motivated behavior in adolescence
Psychol Med
Age differences in future orientation and delay discounting
Child Dev
Delay of gratification in children
Science
Cited by (0)
This work was supported in part by NIDAR01 DA018879, NIDA Pre-Doctoral training grant DA007274, the Mortimer D. Sackler family, the Dewitt-Wallace fund, and the Weill Cornell Medical College Citigroup Biomedical Imaging Center and Imaging Core.
Disclosure: Dr. Casey and Ms. Jones report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.