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UNDERSTANING ADOLESCENCE AS A PERIOD OF SOCIAL-AFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENT AND…
UNDERSTANING ADOLESCENCE AS A PERIOD OF SOCIAL-AFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENT AND GOAL FLEXIBILITY
1) INTRODUCTION
2) CURRENT VIEWS OF ADOLESCENT BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
3) NEUROIMAGING ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT
Some
limitations
of these techniques
Studies focused on a great interval (8-25), all studies
don't consider
every single
phase of adolescence
Don't consider
specific patterns
of change
Don't consider the
puberty-specific effects
Not only considering the immaturity of
cognitive control
, but also faster maturation of
affective processing
Adolescence from an anthropological perspective
Adolescence wasn't invented in the industrial society, but was presented in the pre-industrial societies
Differences respect the past
Occurred early (greater interval of time)
Now different role (not period of social and reproductive development)
Adolescence
as an indefined (at the ending) period of different type of changes
These
changes
can explained in
different ways
(maturation in cognitive control, social and affective processes, motivation and individual feelings)
Understanding these changes, help us because they have high-impact negative
health problems
4) FUNCTIONAL MRI STUDIES OF COGNITIVE CONTROL
Basic
cognitive control functions
Overlapping PFC and Parietal Cortex with complex cognitive functions
Working Memory
(vWM paradigm)
ventral and dorsolateral PFC
Inhibition or Interference
(tasks)
Inferior and Middle Frontal Gyrus
Task switching
(studies)
Lateral PFC and parietal cortex
Trying to confirm a
general age-related decrease
in frontal cortical activity as an increase of efficiency
Depends on tasks, so
frontal cortical immaturity hypothesis
is not so supported by evidences
Structural brain development in adolescence
Different pattern in structural development
White-mattern (linear increase/decrease)
In subcortical brain regions depends on the region
Gray-matter (inverted-U pattern)
Complex
cognitive control functions
Studies confirm the general agre-related decrease problem above described
Flexibility for recruiting cognitive control systems?
Importance of
context motivational salience
in engaging cognitive control system
Context defined by
rapid social changes
, so importance in learn them fast
Longitudinal studies confirm this
brain flexibility
in adolescence
Short-range connections
become weaker with age
Long-term connections
become stronger with age
This flexibility is sculpted by experience and made adolescents vulnerable (but able to adapt themselves
Animal research on puberty-specific changes in reward processing
In animal, second organizational period of
remodelling dopaminergic systems
after changes in gonadal hormone levels
Similar results in human (increase novely seeking)
5) FUNCTIONAL MRI STUDIES OF AFFECTIVE PROCESSING
Studying the relationship between
receiving reward
and
striatum activity
Not age-related differences in reward-anticipation (explanation of discordance in risk-taking behaviour)
Prediction error
and dopamine system (connectivity between ventral striatum and medial PFC)
Studying the response to
threat stimuli
General
intensification
of
affective processing
(demonstrated by amygdala activity)
General neurodevelopment not linear
6) FUNCTIONAL MRI STUDIES OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Social-cognitive development
Adolescence is a period defined by many
social environmental demands
, such as peer pressions and rapid changes
Activation of specific
social brain network
, medial PFC (more active than adults) and Tempoparietal junction (less active than adults)
Using of many games such as the Trust Games, we see a decrease in
self-oriented thoughts
and increase in
other-oriented thoughts
Development of capacity to
take the other perspective
(increasing TPJ)
Social-affective development
Social acceptance
and
rejection
Increased activation in Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Striatum
Not activation in dorsolateral PFC
Not top capacity to regulate rejection
Insula and dorsal ACC (rejection)
Modulated effect by social context, ex. how many friends I have
Subgenual ACC and medial PFC associated with
depressive symptoms
Many questions are open:
Relationship between neural activation and social learning from experience
Role of pubertal hormones
7) PUBERTY AND SOCIAL-AFFECTIVE CHANGES
An issue to consider with also peer effects and role of hot situations (how interact each other)
Period of
social changes
(require of indipendence and new social networks)
8) MOVING FORWARD: NEW HEURISTIC MODELS
The precedent models are focused on frontal cortical immaturity and are based on cross-sectional comparisons
The new model considers two elements:
Social-affective engagement
and
goal flexibility
The
cognitive engagement
is flexible, determining vulnerabilities and flexibility and rapid capacity to learn from experience
Adolescents are able to achieve
mature levels
of
social competence
Role of hormones
on social-affective development
Hormones like
testosterone
are involved in social motivation, threatening social situations, social status and other
Modulation of brain activity such as
amygdala
and
ventral PFC activity
Sex differences
also in regions dotated with androgen receptors
Girls grey matter thinning / Boys grey matter thickening
Differences in relation to different cultural contexts?