Risk and Impulsive Behaviour, Depression Among Adolescentsthrough the Prism of Neuroimaging Studies of Brain Development

Abstract

Adolescence is a specific developmental period in which there are social and cognitive developmental prerequisites for the emergence of vulnerability to risky and impulsive behaviors, and affective occurrence of disorders, such as depression. Review of literature and reference researchshows that traditional neurobiological and cognitive explanations for adolescent behavior have failed to explainnonlinear behavioral changes observed in adolescence, associated with childhood and adult life. We made a review of referenced research imaging studies with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of development of the human brain and behavior, neuroimaging studies and depression in adolescence, in order to provide explaination of:nonlinear changes behavior observed in adolescence and neural mechanisms responsible for these changes; individual differences in optimal decision-making and behavior during adolescence. The findings of these studies suggest that during adolescence, unlike childhood and adulthood, there is a differential development of bottom-up limbic system, implicated in motivational and emotional processes, to topdown control system. These developmental patterns can be intensify in adolescents who are more prone to emotional responsiveness, increasing the probability of the occurrence of risky and impulsive outcomes. We emphasized the need for new longitudinal neuroimaging studies, which include the dimension of development.