<i>The Adolescent Brain</i>

TLDR

Adolescence is marked by increased risk‑taking behaviors such as injuries, violence, substance abuse, and STDs, yet traditional neurobiological and cognitive models cannot fully explain the nonlinear behavioral changes seen during this period. This review proposes a biologically plausible model of the neural mechanisms driving these nonlinear behavioral changes. Evidence from human imaging and animal studies shows that adolescents exhibit heightened responsiveness to incentives and socioemotional contexts while impulse control remains immature. The developmental pattern reveals that bottom‑up limbic systems mature faster than top‑down control systems, a disparity that may be amplified in emotionally reactive adolescents, increasing the risk of adverse outcomes.

Abstract

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by suboptimal decisions and actions that are associated with an increased incidence of unintentional injuries, violence, substance abuse, unintended pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases. Traditional neurobiological and cognitive explanations for adolescent behavior have failed to account for the nonlinear changes in behavior observed during adolescence, relative to both childhood and adulthood. This review provides a biologically plausible model of the neural mechanisms underlying these nonlinear changes in behavior. We provide evidence from recent human brain imaging and animal studies that there is a heightened responsiveness to incentives and socioemotional contexts during this time, when impulse control is still relatively immature. These findings suggest differential development of bottom‐up limbic systems, implicated in incentive and emotional processing, to top‐down control systems during adolescence as compared to childhood and adulthood. This developmental pattern may be exacerbated in those adolescents prone to emotional reactivity, increasing the likelihood of poor outcomes.