The Teenage Brain

Relative to childhood, peer relationships take on a heightened importance during adolescence. Might adolescents be highly attuned to information that concerns when and how they are being evaluated, and what their peers think of them? This review evaluates how continuing brain development - which influences brain function - partially explains or reflects adolescents' attunement to social evaluation. Though preliminary, evidence is mounting to suggest that while processing information relevant to social evaluation and the internal states of other people, adolescents respond with greater emotional intensity and corresponding nonlinear recruitment of socioaffective brain circuitry. This review highlights research…

• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• NI
  National Institute of Mental Health