Date created: | Last Updated:

Category: Project

Description: Following a key developmental task of childhood, namely building a foundation of self-knowledge in the form of domain-specific self-concepts, adolescents begin to explore their emerging identities in ways that foster both autonomy and connectedness. Neuroimaging studies of self-related processes demonstrate enhanced engagement of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in adolescence, which may both facilitate and reflect identity development by integrating across multiple sources of value. Drawing from neuroeconomic and social cognitive accounts, we propose that motivated behavior during adolescence can be modeled by a general value-based decision-making process centered around value accumulation in vmPFC. This approach advances models of adolescent neurodevelopment that focus on reward sensitivity and cognitive control by considering more diverse value inputs, including contributions of developing self- and identity-related processes. It also considers adolescent decision-making and behavior from their point of view, rather than primarily taking adults’ perspectives on what adolescents should value or how they should behave.