ADAPTIVE OR ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT OF THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN

Catalog description

The teen brain has received a lot of media coverage with advances in brain imaging techniques that provide a voyeuristic opportunity for us to look under the hood of the behaving adolescent brain. This course will cover empirical and theoretical accounts of adolescent-specific changes in brain and behavior that relate to the development of self control. These accounts of adolescent brain and behavior will then be discussed in the context of relevant legal, social and health policy issues. Lectures and discussion will address: Under what circumstances self control appears to be diminished in adolescents. How do dynamic changes in neural circuitry help to explain changes in self control across development? When does the capacity for self control fully mature? Are these changes observed in other species? How might these changes be evolutionarily adaptive and when are they maladaptive? How might understanding adolescent brain and behavioral development inform interventions and treatments for maladaptive behavior or inform policy for changing the environment to protect youth?