RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Adolescence and Reward: Making Sense of Neural and Behavioral Changes Amid the Chaos JF The Journal of Neuroscience JO J. Neurosci. FD Society for Neuroscience SP 10855 OP 10866 DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1834-17.2017 VO 37 IS 45 A1 Deena M. Walker A1 Margaret R. Bell A1 Cecilia Flores A1 Joshua M. Gulley A1 Jari Willing A1 Matthew J. Paul YR 2017 UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/37/45/10855.abstract AB Adolescence is a time of significant neural and behavioral change with remarkable development in social, emotional, and cognitive skills. It is also a time of increased exploration and risk-taking (e.g., drug use). Many of these changes are thought to be the result of increased reward-value coupled with an underdeveloped inhibitory control, and thus a hypersensitivity to reward. Perturbations during adolescence can alter the developmental trajectory of the brain, resulting in long-term alterations in reward-associated behaviors. This review highlights recent developments in our understanding of how neural circuits, pubertal hormones, and environmental factors contribute to adolescent-typical reward-associated behaviors with a particular focus on sex differences, the medial prefrontal cortex, social reward, social isolation, and drug use. We then introduce a new approach that makes use of natural adaptations of seasonally breeding species to investigate the role of pubertal hormones in adolescent development. This research has only begun to parse out contributions of the many neural, endocrine, and environmental changes to the heightened reward sensitivity and increased vulnerability to mental health disorders that characterize this life stage.