I continue to dig around for articles on risk-taking. This one studies how the maturity of prefrontal regions and their connection to frontostriatal circuitry impacts risk taking behaviour. My purpose and interest in this article is in optimizing a learning situation. I want to know what the cognitive variables are that influence learning. Does an optimal learning situation necessitate an element of risk? ie. if adolescents are predisposed to risk-taking behaviour, how can we leverage this in learning? How does technology factor into this? How can technology augment and optimize a learning situation?
Earlier Development of the Accumbens Relative to
Orbitofrontal Cortex Might Underlie Risk-Taking Behavior
in Adolescents
Adriana Galvan, Todd A. Hare, Cindy E. Parra, Jackie Penn, Henning Voss, Gary Glover, and B. J. Casey
"The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that adolescence is a developmental period of increased responsivity to reward relative to childhood and adulthood" (p. 6885)
"Adolescence is characterized by continued structural and functional development of frontostriatal circuitry implicated in behavioral regulation" (p. 6885)
"These findings suggest that different developmental trajectories for these regions may relate to the increased impulsive and risky behaviors observed during this period of development" (p. 6889)
"One goal of this study was to characterize reward learning across development. Adults showed behavioral distinction to the three cues, with fastest responses to the large reward cue. Adolescents showed less discrete responses and children show little to no learning" (p. 6890)
"Here, our data suggest that reward-related neural responses influence behavioral output" (p. 6890)
"Evidence from our study supports the notion that relative reward preference is exaggerated during adolescence: adolescents showed an enhanced accumbens response to the large reward and a decrease in activity to the small reward relative to other rewards and to other ages" (p. 6890)
"Adolescents report greater intensity of positive feelings and more positive BOLD signal intensity than adults during a win condition (Ernst et al., 2005). The adolescents may have viewed the small reward as an omission of reward, similar to lack of an expected event at a given time, previously shown to decrease striatal activity (Davidson et al., 2004). This finding corresponded to a slowing of reaction time from early to late trials for the smaller rewards, providing additional evidence that this condition may have been perceived as more negative for adolescents. Together, these findings imply that reward perception might be influenced by changes in neural systems during adolescence (Irwin, 1993)" (p. 6890)
"Understanding the development of structural and functional connectivity of reward-related mesolimbic circuitry may further inform the field on the neurobiological basis of increased reward-seeking and adolescent-onset addiction"(p. 6891)
"Thus, disproportionate contributions of subcortical systems relative to prefrontal regulatory systems may underlie poor decision-making that predisposes adolescents to drug use and, ultimately, addiction." (p. 6891)
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