Abstract
Human adolescence has been characterized by increases in risk-taking, emotional lability, and deficient patterns of behavioral regulation. These behaviors have often been attributed to changes in brain structure that occur during this developmental period, notably alterations in gray and white matter that impact synaptic architecture in frontal, limbic, and striatal regions. In this review, we provide a rationale for considering that these behaviors may be due to changes in dopamine system activity, particularly overactivity, during adolescence relative to either childhood or adulthood. This rationale relies on animal data due to limitations in assessing neurochemical activity more directly in juveniles. Accordingly, we also present a strategy that incorporates molecular genetic techniques to infer the status of the underlying tone of the dopamine system across developmental groups. Implications for the understanding of adolescent behavioral development are discussed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 631-648 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2010 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by grant DA017843-05 awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to Monica Luciana and by a seed grant from the Biomedical Genomics Center at the University of Minnesota to Tonya White. Dustin Wahlstrom was supported by T32 grant MH017069-26 from the National Institute on Mental Health .
Keywords
- Adolescence
- Brain development
- COMT
- Dopamine
- Working memory