Department of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333AK, The Netherlands.
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2012 Sep;13(9):636-50. doi: 10.1038/nrn3313.
Research has demonstrated that extensive structural and functional brain development continues throughout adolescence. A popular notion emerging from this work states that a relative immaturity in frontal cortical neural systems could explain adolescents' high rates of risk-taking, substance use and other dangerous behaviours. However, developmental neuroimaging studies do not support a simple model of frontal cortical immaturity. Rather, growing evidence points to the importance of changes in social and affective processing, which begin around the onset of puberty, as crucial to understanding these adolescent vulnerabilities. These changes in social-affective processing also may confer some adaptive advantages, such as greater flexibility in adjusting one's intrinsic motivations and goal priorities amidst changing social contexts in adolescence.
研究表明，广泛的结构和功能大脑发育在整个青春期持续进行。这项工作中出现的一个流行观点表明，额叶皮质神经系统的相对不成熟可以解释青少年高风险行为、药物使用和其他危险行为的高发率。然而，发展神经影像学研究并不支持额叶皮质不成熟的简单模型。相反，越来越多的证据表明，社会和情感处理的变化很重要，这些变化始于青春期开始时，对于理解这些青少年的脆弱性至关重要。社会情感处理的这些变化也可能带来一些适应性优势，例如在青春期不断变化的社会环境中，更好地调整内在动机和目标优先级的灵活性。
