Adolescence as a Developmental Epoch
- Adolescence is characterized by a transition from exogenously-driven to endogenously-driven behavior (cognitive control).
- Structural imaging data indicate that the association areas in each lobe are the latest to mature; the underlying mechanisms this late maturation are thought to be synaptic pruning and myelination, which enable faster neurotransmission.
- fMRI data suggest greater prefrontal activation in adolescence than in either childhood or adulthood (i.e., a curvilinear relationship) and more widespread distribution of activation in adults relative to adolescents when using eye movement tasks to assess cognitive control mechanisms. The transition from adolescence to adulthood is marked by increased collaboration among brain regions.
- Researchers do not yet have a solid understanding of the effects of puberty and better metrics are needed. For example, the length of puberty (as a possible indicator of plasticity) and the domain of interest (e.g., motivation) may prove important.
