Beyond simple models of adolescence to an integrated circuit based account: A commentary
A hallmark of behavioral development is the increasing ability o suppress inappropriate, competing thoughts, desires, emotions nd actions in favor of appropriate ones (i.e. self control) One evelopmental phase that has received much attention in recent ears is that of adolescence, due in part to the significant brain hanges of this period (Lee et al. 2014) and also to the heightened isk for psychopathology and criminally relevant behaviors (Casey t al. 2015; Cohen and Casey, 2014) Two interesting articles in his issue, by Shulman and colleagues and Nelson and colleagues, eview the developmental science literature and describe potential odels for understanding adolescent behavioral and brain develpment focusing largely on the importance of incentives and social nfluences, respectively, during adolescence. A number of theoretical models have emerged to explain chalenges to self control during the period of adolescence. Historically hey have been described in the form of dichotomies with G. Stanley all claiming the inevitable storm and stress of adolescence while ultural anthropologist (Hall, 1904) Margaret Mead, argued for the mportance of the environment (Mead, 2004) Another dichotomy eviewed by Shulman and colleagues in this issue is that proposed y the dual systems model of adolescence that emphasizes diverent trajectories of motivational versus cognitive control systems, ased largely on psychological findings. This model has provided erhaps the greatest traction for conveying developmental scienific findings in an accessible way to inform age related social and egal policies (Steinberg, 2009) However, heuristic accounts can ead to oversimplifications of the science and failure to capture suble complexities of behavior. A move away from simple dichotomies ay enhance our understanding for how self control varies by conent (i.e. actions, emotions or desires to be suppressed) and by ontext (e.g. alone, with parent, with peer or strangers) during adoescence. Similar advances have been made with the move away rom the nature vs nurture dichotomy toward the more nuanced ecognition that genetic and environmental factors are inherently ntertwined. The environment can impact expression of genes,
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience