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Adolescence – Approach with caution| old_uid | 13637 |
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| title | Adolescence – Approach with caution |
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| start_date | 2014/03/20 |
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| schedule | 13h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | To survive we must avoid things that cause us harm and pain, so how do we modulate our behaviour to avoid negative outcomes? What are the neural pathways that mediate avoidance behaviours? And how do these change in the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Do adolescents take more risks because they are unable to avoid harm and modify their behaviour as a result of punishment, like sociopaths? These are all questions that will be addressed in this talk, where I will take you on a journey examining the brain regions that are critical for modulating appropriate approach-avoidance behaviours. First, I will focus on the fronto-striatal circuitry and in particular the role of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in avoidance behaviour based on some of our recent brain imaging studies, which extend the role of the NAcc from purely reward-based action-contingencies, to one that also involves either emitting or withholding a response to avoid harm. Second, I will present and discuss the significance of a recent developmental EEG study in our lab, which found significant differences in learning dependent potentiation of early visual processes to danger signals in adolescents and adults. Lastly, I will attempt to integrate and discuss the implications of these findings on the way we think about adolescent behaviour, and challenge the commonly held view that adolescents are less motivated or unable to learn from negative outcomes. |
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| responsibles | Coello |
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