Developmental Psychology Commons^™

The Development Of Reward Processing And Risky Behaviors In The Brain, Michelle L. Ramos

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescence is a period of heightened risk taking which can lead to many negative consequences. This increased risk taking may be related to developmental changes in the reward processing system in the brain. The current study proposes to investigate individual differences in the development of the reward processing system as well as cognitive-based regulatory processes in the developing brain, and how heterogeneity in neural and autonomic activity related to these processes may predict risk-taking behavior. Despite crucial developmental changes in the reward system leading to hypersensitivity to reward, there is great variability in risk-taking and sensation seeking behaviors seen in …