Adolescents' Performance on the Iowa Gambling Task: Implications for the Development of Decision Making and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex.

Abstract

Healthy adolescents (79 girls, 66 boys), ages 9-17, completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. Anderson, 1994) as well as working memory (digit span) and behavioral inhibition (go/no-go) tasks. Cross-sectional age-related changes were seen on all 3 tasks. Gender differences were seen in IGT deck preference and attentional variables (i.e., go/no-go hit rate and forward digit span). After age, gender, and general intellectual abilities were controlled for, IGT performance was not predicted by working memory or behavioral inhibition scores. Findings suggest that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex or its connections are functionally maturing during adolescence in a manner that can be distinguished from maturation of other prefrontal regions. Development of these functions may continue into young adulthood.

A social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk-taking

“…Improved executive function in adolescence is reflected in better performance with age on tasks known to activate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, such as relatively difficult tests of spatial working memory (Conklin et al, 2007) or especially challenging tests of response inhibition (Luna et al, 2001); and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, such as the Iowa Gambling Task (Crone & van der Molen, 2004;Hooper, Luciana, Conklin, & Yarger, 2004). Although some tests of executive function simultaneously activate both the dorsolateral and ventromedial regions, there is some evidence that the maturation of these regions may take place along somewhat different timetables, with performance on exclusively ventromedial tasks reaching adult levels somewhat earlier than performance on exclusively dorsolateral tasks (Conklin et al, 2007;Hooper et al, 2004).…”

“…Improved executive function in adolescence is reflected in better performance with age on tasks known to activate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, such as relatively difficult tests of spatial working memory (Conklin et al, 2007) or especially challenging tests of response inhibition (Luna et al, 2001); and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, such as the Iowa Gambling Task (Crone & van der Molen, 2004;Hooper, Luciana, Conklin, & Yarger, 2004). Although some tests of executive function simultaneously activate both the dorsolateral and ventromedial regions, there is some evidence that the maturation of these regions may take place along somewhat different timetables, with performance on exclusively ventromedial tasks reaching adult levels somewhat earlier than performance on exclusively dorsolateral tasks (Conklin et al, 2007;Hooper et al, 2004). In one recent study of age differences in cognitive performance using tasks known to differentially activate these two prefrontal regions, there was age-related improvement into middle adolescence on both types of tasks, but there were no significant correlations between performance on the ventromedial and dorsolateral tasks, suggesting that maturation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex may be a developmentally distinct process from the maturation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Hooper et al, 2004).…”

“…Although some tests of executive function simultaneously activate both the dorsolateral and ventromedial regions, there is some evidence that the maturation of these regions may take place along somewhat different timetables, with performance on exclusively ventromedial tasks reaching adult levels somewhat earlier than performance on exclusively dorsolateral tasks (Conklin et al, 2007;Hooper et al, 2004). In one recent study of age differences in cognitive performance using tasks known to differentially activate these two prefrontal regions, there was age-related improvement into middle adolescence on both types of tasks, but there were no significant correlations between performance on the ventromedial and dorsolateral tasks, suggesting that maturation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex may be a developmentally distinct process from the maturation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Hooper et al, 2004). Performance on especially difficult tasks known to activate dorsolateral areas continues to improve during late adolescence (Crone, Donohue, Honomichl, Wendelken, & Bunge, 2006;Luna et al, 2001).…”

Decision-Making, Cognitive Distortions and Alcohol Use in Adolescent Problem and Non-problem Gamblers: An Experimental Study

“…In summary, the psychological literature has shown that adults perform better than adolescents on the IGT, who, in turn, perform better than children as demonstrated by (i) the positive relationship between age and IGT performance (Crone & van der Molen, 2004;Crone et al, 2005;Hooper et al, 2004), and (ii) ascribed poor decision-making to an non-linear development of subcortical and prefrontal regions that underpin decisionmaking (Smith et al, 2012). This decision-making impairment, exemplified by the perseverance of bad choices when performing the IGT, has been detected in several studies utilizing psychopathological populations, such as drug-and alcohol-addicted (Bechara et al, 2001;Goudriaan et al, 2005Goudriaan et al, , 2006Lorains et al, 2014;Monterosso et al, 2001;Wiehler & Peters, 2015).…”

“…In one study (Hooper et al, 2004), three different age cohorts were compared (9-10 years, 11-13 years, 14-17 years).…”