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Exciting fear in adolescence: Does pubertal development alter threat processing?
Adolescent development encompasses an ostensible paradox in threat processing. Risk taking increases dramatically after the onset of puberty, contributing to a 200% increase in mortality. Yet, pubertal maturation is associated with increased reactivity in threat-avoidance systems. In the first part...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4227085/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24548554 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2014.01.004 |
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author | Spielberg, Jeffrey M. Olino, Thomas M. Forbes, Erika E. Dahl, Ronald E. |
author_facet | Spielberg, Jeffrey M. Olino, Thomas M. Forbes, Erika E. Dahl, Ronald E. |
author_sort | Spielberg, Jeffrey M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Adolescent development encompasses an ostensible paradox in threat processing. Risk taking increases dramatically after the onset of puberty, contributing to a 200% increase in mortality. Yet, pubertal maturation is associated with increased reactivity in threat-avoidance systems. In the first part of this paper we propose a heuristic model of adolescent affective development that may help to reconcile aspects of this paradox, which focuses on hypothesized pubertal increases in the capacity to experience (some) fear-evoking experiences as an exciting thrill. In the second part of this paper, we test key features of this model by examining brain activation to threat cues in a longitudinal study that disentangled pubertal and age effects. Pubertal increases in testosterone predicted increased activation to threat cues, not only in regions associated with threat avoidance (i.e., amygdala), but also regions associated with reward pursuit (i.e., nucleus accumbens). These findings are consistent with our hypothesis that puberty is associated with a maturational shift toward more complex processing of threat cues—which may contribute to adolescent tendencies to explore and enjoy some types of risky experiences. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4227085 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Elsevier |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-42270852015-04-01 Exciting fear in adolescence: Does pubertal development alter threat processing? Spielberg, Jeffrey M. Olino, Thomas M. Forbes, Erika E. Dahl, Ronald E. Dev Cogn Neurosci Original Research Adolescent development encompasses an ostensible paradox in threat processing. Risk taking increases dramatically after the onset of puberty, contributing to a 200% increase in mortality. Yet, pubertal maturation is associated with increased reactivity in threat-avoidance systems. In the first part of this paper we propose a heuristic model of adolescent affective development that may help to reconcile aspects of this paradox, which focuses on hypothesized pubertal increases in the capacity to experience (some) fear-evoking experiences as an exciting thrill. In the second part of this paper, we test key features of this model by examining brain activation to threat cues in a longitudinal study that disentangled pubertal and age effects. Pubertal increases in testosterone predicted increased activation to threat cues, not only in regions associated with threat avoidance (i.e., amygdala), but also regions associated with reward pursuit (i.e., nucleus accumbens). These findings are consistent with our hypothesis that puberty is associated with a maturational shift toward more complex processing of threat cues—which may contribute to adolescent tendencies to explore and enjoy some types of risky experiences. Elsevier 2014-01-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4227085/ /pubmed/24548554 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2014.01.004 Text en © 2014 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). |
spellingShingle | Original Research Spielberg, Jeffrey M. Olino, Thomas M. Forbes, Erika E. Dahl, Ronald E. Exciting fear in adolescence: Does pubertal development alter threat processing? |
title | Exciting fear in adolescence: Does pubertal development alter threat processing? |
title_full | Exciting fear in adolescence: Does pubertal development alter threat processing? |
title_fullStr | Exciting fear in adolescence: Does pubertal development alter threat processing? |
title_full_unstemmed | Exciting fear in adolescence: Does pubertal development alter threat processing? |
title_short | Exciting fear in adolescence: Does pubertal development alter threat processing? |
title_sort | exciting fear in adolescence: does pubertal development alter threat processing? |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4227085/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24548554 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2014.01.004 |
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