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Adolescent risk-taking
OVERVIEW
This document provides an overview of the scientific community’s current understanding of why adolescents are more likely than children or adults to engage in risk-taking behavior, how this behavior is measured in experimental contexts, and how this knowledge can be applied to support evidence-based practice.
Adolescence a period of transition between the onset of puberty (~age 10- years) and adulthood (~age 18-21 years) Cognitive control often referred to with the term ‘executive functions,’ a family of skills needed when you have to choose an action or thought based on rules or plans, when you have to concentrate and pay attention in the presence of distraction, and when going on automatic or relying on instinct or intuition would not be adaptive
What emotional and cognitive operations
develop during adolescence?
Adolescence is marked by heightened risk-taking, reward-seeking, and impulsive behaviors. Some of these behaviors serve a functional purpose as adolescents begin to establish independence from their parents and take on adult roles and responsibilities^1 , but they can also result in negative consequences, such as increased rates of mortality and addiction. Researchers have identified a number of emotional and cognitive processes that develop during adolescence that are related to the behavioral changes observed during this time. Processes involved in cognitive control (such as the abilities to selectively choose an action or thought based on rules or plans, inhibit impulsive behaviors, and hold information in working memory) improve in a gradual linear fashion from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. People also get better with age at resisting immediate temptation in order to receive a larger reward at a later time (a process known as “temporal discounting of reward” or “delay of gratification”)^2. These processes are part of an overarching construct of self-control. The development of these processes has been linked to the maturation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). In contrast, there is evidence that other processes are at their peak in adolescence, rather than changing in a linear way from childhood to adulthood. Two such processes that have been of great interest to researchers attempting to understand the prevalence of risk-taking behavior in adolescence are sensation seeking and reward sensitivity. Adolescents tend to seek out new and exciting situations more than children or adults do, and this tendency is related to an increase in risk-taking behavior. Intuitively, this makes sense and is adaptive. Adolescence is a time for physical growth and making a path for independence from one’s nuclear family. However, what is adaptive in some situations can be maladaptive in others, especially if adolescents are experiencing trauma, stress, neighborhood violence, etc. For example, adolescents who report enjoying “exploring new places” and doing “frightening things” are more likely to engage in risky behavior, such as using drugs^3. Adolescents are also more likely than children or adults to value rewards as pleasurable. Therefore, they may be more likely to engage in risky behavior in response to an increase in the value of rewarding events and items^4. Adolescents’ behavior is also more affected by emotional information. Adolescents are less able than children or adults to inhibit impulsive behaviors in response to emotional information, like happy faces^5 , and they engage in
Self-control more risk-taking in the presence of peers in comparison to when they are the ability to suppress (^) alone^6. This heightened sensitivity to social context can lead to positive inappropriate or (^) outcomes as well. For example, adolescents increase their prosocial behavior, competing thoughts, desires, emotions, and or behavior intended to benefit others, in response to prosocial feedback from 7 actions in favor of (^) peers. appropriate ones
Prefrontal cortex (PFC)^ Many of the developmental changes in emotional and cognitive operations cortical brain structure discussed above are consistent with results from studies of animal species, involved in cognitive including rats and non-human primates. Across many species, adolescence is a control (^) time of increased novelty-seeking, peer interactions, and independence from
Sensation seeking caregivers. Although risk-taking in adolescence is often viewed negatively, this the inclination to pursue (^) persistence across species points to the ways in which some risky behavior is new or exciting (^) adaptive for survival. Adolescence is an important time for exploring peer experiences and the (^) relationships outside of one’s nuclear family and preparing to “leave the nest” willingness to take risks for the sake of such to build a life of one’s own independent of caregivers. Thus, this drive towards experiences (^) risk-taking may be positive in many ways, unless co-opted by opportunities that
Reward sensitivity are truly dangerous, like excessive alcohol or drug use. In addition, individual level of responsiveness or (^) variation among adolescents makes some more likely than others to engage in susceptibility to changes in (^) sensation-seeking and/or risk-taking behavior. the value of a rewarding stimulus
Inhibition How do we know this?
voluntary or automatic (^) Much of what we know about emotional and cognitive development comes constraint or suppression of a process or behavior from experimental or task-based approaches. Researchers develop experimental tasks with the intention of eliciting observable and measurable behaviors that are related to underlying mental constructs (e.g., motivation). Tasks are carefully designed to isolate specific mental processes that are difficult (or impossible) to measure through observable behavior outside of an experimental setting.
METHOD SPOTLIGHT
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, is a neuroimaging technique for measuring brain activity. Neurons, the cells that send electrical and chemical messages throughout the brain and the rest of the nervous system, require energy to transmit signals. This energy is delivered through increased blood flow to regions that are relatively more active at a given moment. By measuring changes in blood flow, fMRI detects which brain regions are more or less active when a person engages in a certain task. This method provides a powerful tool for investigating which brain regions (and networks of brain regions) are involved in cognitive processes such as reward-seeking, risk assessment, and inhibition of impulsivity. However, conducting fMRI research is expensive and logistically difficult, making it impractical for many research environments. It should also be noted that fMRI images may suggest relations between certain brain regions and cognitive processes, but causation is nearly impossible to establish due to the complex nature of these processes.
Areas highlighted in color on visualizations of fMRI results reflect brain regions that are relatively more (or less) active during one activity as compared to another
Str iat um subcortical brain structure involved in reward-seeking behavior
and adults at inhibiting presses to happy face no-go stimuli, suggesting that they were more affected by, and less able to inhibit, a response to the emotionally rewarding positive faces. This behavioral result was mirrored in a measure of brain activity using fMRI. Relative to children and adults, adolescents had enhanced activity in response to happy faces in a brain region called the striatum. The striatum is a subcortical (below the cortex) brain region that has been implicated in reward-seeking behavior, and thus, this result is consistent with a model of peak reward-seeking during adolescence. Another task that is widely used in the study of cognitive control is the Stroop task (Figure 2), in which participants see the name of a color (e.g., “blue”) printed in a colored font, and they are then asked to report the font color. On congruent trials, the color word and the color of the font match (e.g., “blue” displayed in blue font), but on incongruent trials, the word and font color do not match (e.g., “blue” displayed in red font). Successful responses on incongruent trials require acting according to a rule, i.e., attending only to the font color and ignoring the meaning of the word. The difference in response time between congruent and incongruent trials is used as a measure of cognitive control. This task was used in a study of the relationship between cognitive control and risk-taking in adolescence^8. In addition to the classic “cognitive” Stroop task described above, 13- to 17-year-old adolescents also completed an emotional version of the task in which an adjective (e.g., “joyful”) was displayed over a face displaying an emotional expression. The facial expression was either congruent (e.g., “joyful” displayed over a happy face) or incongruent (e.g., “joyful” displayed over an angry face) with the meaning of the word. Participants were asked to report the emotion category of the word, regardless of the expression on the face. Finally, participants also played a driving simulation game called the Stoplight task (Figure 3) in which they tried to complete a course as quickly as possible. At each intersection, participants had
Fi gur e 2. Classic (left) and emotional (right) Stroop task.
Fi gur e 3. Stoplight task (Chein et al., 2011).
to choose between stopping at a stoplight for a small delay, or risking a longer “crash” delay by running the light. Adolescents’ risk-taking behavior on the driving task (i.e., running lights) was predicted by their performance on the emotional Stroop task but not the cognitive Stroop task. In other words, adolescents who chose to run through more stoplights were less able to ignore the facial expression in the emotional Stroop task, but they were just as good at the color Stroop task as adolescents who took fewer risks. These results suggest that cognitive control predicts risk-taking, but only when it is assessed in an emotionally arousing context. In another study using the same Stoplight driving task and fMRI, adolescents took more risks when they were being observed by peers than when they were alone^9. The Iowa Gambling Task is a task used to assess decision-making when outcomes are uncertain. Participants are presented with four decks of cards that have rewards or punishments on them. Two of the decks have more rewards than punishments (and are thus deemed “advantageous” decks), and the other two have more punishments than rewards (“disadvantageous” decks). The participant continuously draws cards from a deck, with the option to switch decks at any time. If the participant draws more cards from the advantageous decks over time, this is seen as evidence that he or she is sensitive to the probability of receiving a reward from those decks. One study of people between the ages of 10 and 30 found that adolescents were faster than adults or children to switch their picks to the advantageous decks, suggesting that they were more sensitive to the overall reward value of each deck^4.
Fi gur e 4. Theoretical models of adolescent development (Shulman et al., 2016).
of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a brain area that has been found to be very important for self-regulation and impulse inhibition. These models, however, could not account for why risk-taking behaviors increased from childhood to adolescence. Two current leading models, the dual systems model and the imbalance model, consider the ways in which both motivational and control capacities develop and interact to produce behavior. According to the dual systems model^15 (Figure 4A), the profile of behavior often seen in adolescence results from an early-developing socioemotional system that increases motivation to seek rewards paired with a relatively slow- developing cognitive control system that inhibits impulses. According to this model, the socioemotional system peaks in terms of arousability/reactivity in middle adolescence (ages 14-17), while the cognitive control system continues to mature through late adolescence and into adulthood. Adolescence, therefore, is characterized by a highly reactive socioemotional system that is not yet fully counteracted by a mature system of cognitive control. The authors of this model note that although the biological propensity for risk-taking is highest in middle adolescence, higher rates of risk taking in late adolescence (ages 18-21) relative to middle adolescence are likely due to a general increase in the opportunity for risk-taking with age (e.g., less adult supervision, more financial resources, easier access to alcohol, cars, etc.). While similar to the dual systems model in many ways, the imbalance model (Figure 4B) does not conceive of different systems for motivation and control, but rather “attempts to account for adolescent behavior from an integrated, circuit-based perspective”^16. According to this model, the emotional and control components of these neural systems are parts of an integrated network and therefore must be considered in terms of the connections within and between these circuits. According to this model, local circuits in subcortical areas (areas that are known to be very involved in reward-seeking and other motivated action) must be formed and strengthened before connections between these subcortical areas and cortical areas (which allow for control) can be built.
Neurot ransm itter chemical messenger that carries messages from neuron to neuron
Do pa mine (DA) neurotransmitter that is important for incentive- driven (motivated) behavior
Imbalances in this brain circuitry can therefore account for the impulsive behavior seen in adolescence as compared to childhood or adulthood. As discussed above, the striatum is a brain region that has been found to be very involved in incentive-driven behavior in a number of contexts. According to the integrative component model of cognitive control (a model that shares many principles with the imbalance model described above), one explanation for this is the striatum’s place in the dopaminergic reward circuit^17. Dopamine (DA) is a neurotransmitter that has been shown to increase incentive-driven behavior by activating favored behaviors and inhibiting less desired/competing behaviors, and it is associated with reward and the feeling of pleasure. There is evidence that DA levels peak during adolescence in both humans and animal models, and the authors of the integrative component model nicely summarize the effect of this on adolescent behavior: “The PFC and striatum support incentive driven behaviors through their unique interconnectivity, which is modulated in part by the function of DA. DA availability and signaling is heightened during the adolescent period and may promote novelty seeking in an adaptive fashion in order to gain skills that support adult survival. However, exaggerated DA levels in both striatum and PFC in adolescence may result in an increased sensitivity to rewards coupled with poor executive regulation of impulse driven behaviors, thereby increasing vulnerability for risk-taking behaviors”^18.
Document prepared by Heidi Baumgartner & Dima Amso
