Adolescent Brain Development

ABD Major Neurotransmitters

dopamine, serotonin, and melatonin

Dopamine

influences brain events that control movement, emotional response, pain and pleasure, it is decreased during adolescence causing mood swings and emotion deregulation

Serotonin

plays a role in mood alteration, anxiety, impulse control, and arousal, decrease in adolescence which can decrease impulse control

Melatonin

regulates circadian rhythms and sleep wake cycle, increased need for sleep

ABD Limbic System

responsible for self-control, decision making, emotions, risk taking behaviors

Reward pathways

feelings of pleasure that reward behaviors such as eating and sex

ABD Emotion Regulation

more likely to be swayed by emotions, rely more heavily on emotion regions of the brain making it harder for them to make logical and appropriate decisions

ABD Neuronal Plasticity

helps with learning and adaptation to acquire independence but also increases vulnerability to improper decision making

Second surge of synaptogenesis

rapid neuronal growth occurs just before puberty - thickening of grey matter and brain rewiring, dendrite pruning, until age 24, especially in PFC

ABD Prefrontal Cortex

last structure of the brain to reach full ontogenetic development, around age 24

Immature Prefrontal Cortex

results poor judgement, excessive risk taking, poor self-regulation in adolescence

ABD Executive Functions

grey and white matter continue to increase, brain dev driven my myelination and synaptic pruning

ADB Executive Functions Deficiencies

abnormalities in attention, working memory, long-term memory retrieval, planning, decision making, inhibitory control

ABD Self-Regulation

developmentally vulnerable to poor regulation of thought emotion, and behavior to achieve a goal

Still Maturing Neurocircuitry

poorer inhibitory control, higher impulsivity, risky decision making, associated with drug use

ABD Risk taking

increased novelty and sensation seeking behavior, correlated with maturation of frontal lobe

Drug use

more vulnerable to drug use and addition due to limbic system having poor impulse control

Cannabis Use

linked to increased likelihood of symptoms of schizophrenia in adulthood

Papers

Arian - paper covers basically everything in the handout

Pokhel - school based interventions are rarely based on neuropsychological models which could mediate intervention effects