Teens Impulsively React rather than Retreat from Threat

Abstract

There is a significant inflection in risk taking and criminal behavior during adolescence, but the basis for this increase remains largely unknown. An increased sensitivity to rewards has been suggested to explain these behaviors, yet juvenile offences often occur in emotionally charged situations of negative valence. How behavior is altered by changes in negative emotional processes during adolescence has received less attention than changes in positive emotional processes. The current study uses a measure of impulsivity in combination with cues that signal threat or safety to assess developmental changes in emotional responses to threat cues. We show that adolescents, especially males, impulsively react to threat cues relative to neutral ones more than adults or children, even when instructed not to respond. This adolescent-specific behavioral pattern is paralleled by enhanced activity in limbic cortical regions implicated in the detection and assignment of emotional value to inputs and in the subsequent regulation of responses to them when successfully suppressing impulsive responses to threat cues. In contrast, prefrontal control regions implicated in detecting and resolving competing responses show an adolescent-emergent pattern (i.e. greater activity in adolescents and adults relative to children) during successful suppression of a response regardless of emotion. Our findings suggest that adolescence is a period of heightened sensitivity to social and emotional cues that results in diminished regulation of behavior in their presence.

Using Dual Process Models to Examine Impulsivity Throughout Neural Maturation

“…The heightened socioemotional reactivity and still maturing cognitive control (Luna et al, 2013;Shulman et al, 2016) during typical neurodevelopment underlies adolescent impulsivity as a transitional trait-behavior Chambers, Taylor, & Potenza, 2003). In adolescence, the ability to withhold impulsive responses is highly dependent on the cognitive demands required, as well as on incentives, environmental cues (i.e., positive, negative or neutral), and other contextual factors such as social setting (Casey, 2015;Chein, Albert, O'Brien, Uckert, & Steinberg, 2011;Dreyfuss et al, 2014;Geier, Terwilliger, Teslovich, Velanova, & Luna, 2010;Luna et al, 2013;Teslovich et al, 2014).…”

Adolescent transitions in reflexive and non-reflexive behavior: Review of fear conditioning and impulse control in rodent models

“…The adolescent period is a time of intense and fluctuating emotional reactions, compounded by a lack of regulatory control (Dreyfuss et al, 2014; Guyer et al, this volume; Hare et al, 2008; Mills et al, 2014; Somerville et al, 2010; Steinberg, 2004). Certain classes of emotional states, particularly negative, increase sharply during adolescence (Hare et al, 2008).…”

“…Unique frontal functioning during adolescence has been linked to the emotionally volatile, impulsive, and sensation-seeking behavior often observed during adolescence (e.g. Dreyfuss et al, 2014; Steinberg, 2004). Subregions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), especially the infralimbic (IL) and prelimbic (PL) regions, are important for acquisition, behavioral expression and extinction of learned fear (Baker et al, this volume; Marek et al, 2013; Sotres-Bayon & Quirk, 2010).…”

“…fearful facial expressions), compared to children or adults (Dreyfuss et al, 2014; Hare et al, 2008; Lau et al, 2011). These exaggerated responses may be due to an age-specific inefficiency in recruiting frontal regions involved in fear regulation (Somerville et al 2010).…”

Within-subject neural reactivity to reward and threat is inverted in young adolescents

“…These indicators encourage restraint in the face of real or imagined dangers, prohibiting, for example, a child from wandering off from parents at a crowded public event. Neurobehavioral research suggests that, relative to older individuals, children are more likely to retreat from cues that signal threat (Dreyfuss et al 2014). This caution does not diminish the inherent curiosity of children, but may temper it.…”