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Brain Sciences
Special Issues
Adolescent Cognitive Development across Contexts
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Adolescent Cognitive Development across Contexts

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2020) | Viewed by 14478

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Charles F. Geier

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
Interests: fMRI; reward; inhibition; connectivity; development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Adolescence is characterized by a progressive maturation in cognitive control abilities, occurring against a backdrop of dynamic socio-emotional changes. While the development of cognitive processes in isolation has been reasonably well-characterized, our understanding of how cognitive processes interact with reward and socio-emotional processing systems, is still emerging. This is a particularly critical issue as adolescent risk-taking, causing significant morbidity and mortality in this age group, frequently involves failures in top-down control over behavior when in the presence of peers and in heightened states of arousal. In this Special Issue, we seek papers delineating our current understanding of the nature of cognitive processes (e.g., inhibitory control, working memory) in context; that is, how control systems in the brain work in tandem with reward and socio-emotional systems in adolescents, and how these interactions contribute to differences and/or similarities in behavior between adolescents and other age groups.

Dr. Charles F. Geier
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Cognitive control
  • Social
  • Reward
  • fMRI

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1057 KiB  
Article
Amplified Concern for Social Risk in Adolescence: Development and Validation of a New Measure
by Jack L. Andrews, Lucy E. Foulkes, Jessica K. Bone and Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(6), 397; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10060397 - 23 Jun 2020
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 5519
Abstract
In adolescence, there is a heightened propensity to take health risks such as smoking, drinking or driving too fast. Another facet of risk taking, social risk, has largely been neglected. A social risk can be defined as any decision or action that could [...] Read more.
In adolescence, there is a heightened propensity to take health risks such as smoking, drinking or driving too fast. Another facet of risk taking, social risk, has largely been neglected. A social risk can be defined as any decision or action that could lead to an individual being excluded by their peers, such as appearing different to one’s friends. In the current study, we developed and validated a measure of concern for health and social risk for use in individuals of 11 years and over (N = 1399). Concerns for both health and social risk declined with age, challenging the commonly held stereotype that adolescents are less worried about engaging in risk behaviours, compared with adults. The rate of decline was steeper for social versus health risk behaviours, suggesting that adolescence is a period of heightened concern for social risk. We validated our measure against measures of rejection sensitivity, depression and risk-taking behaviour. Greater concern for social risk was associated with increased sensitivity to rejection and greater depressed mood, and this association was stronger for adolescents compared with adults. We conclude that social risks should be incorporated into future models of risk-taking behaviour, especially when they are pitted against health risks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adolescent Cognitive Development across Contexts)
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14 pages, 1810 KiB  
Article
A Novel Neighbor Housing Environment Enhances Social Interaction and Rescues Cognitive Deficits from Social Isolation in Adolescence
by Alexander B. Pais, Anthony C. Pais, Gabriel Elmisurati, So Hyun Park, Michael F. Miles and Jennifer T. Wolstenholme
Brain Sci. 2019, 9(12), 336; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9120336 - 22 Nov 2019
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4622
Abstract
Adolescence is characterized by high levels of playful social interaction, cognitive development, and increased risk-taking behavior. Juvenile exposure to social isolation or social stress can reduce myelin content in the frontal cortex, alter neuronal excitability, and disrupt hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis function. [...] Read more.
Adolescence is characterized by high levels of playful social interaction, cognitive development, and increased risk-taking behavior. Juvenile exposure to social isolation or social stress can reduce myelin content in the frontal cortex, alter neuronal excitability, and disrupt hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis function. As compared to group housed animals, social isolation increases anxiety-like phenotypes and reduces social and cognitive performance in adulthood. We designed a neighbor housing environment to alleviate issues related to social isolation that still allowed individual homecages. Neighbor housing consists of four standard mouse cages fused together with semi-permeable ports that allow visual, olfactory, and limited social contact between mice. Adolescent C57BL/6J males and females were group housed (4/cage), single housed (1/cage), or neighbor housed (4/complex). As adults, mice were tested for social, anxiety-like, and cognitive behaviors. Living in this neighbor environment reduced anxiety-like behavior in the social interaction task and in the light-dark task. It also rescued cognitive deficits from single housing in the novel object recognition task. These data suggest that neighbor housing may partially ameliorate the social anxiety and cognitive deficits induced by social isolation. These neighbor cage environments may serve as a conduit by which researchers can house mice in individual cages while still enabling limited social interactions to better model typical adolescent development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adolescent Cognitive Development across Contexts)
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20 pages, 349 KiB  
Article
Cognitive Mediators of School-Related Socio-Adaptive Behaviors in ASD and Intellectual Disability Pre- and Adolescents: A Pilot-Study in French Special Education Classrooms
by Cécile Mazon, Charles Fage, Charles Consel, Anouck Amestoy, Isabelle Hesling, Manuel Bouvard, Kattalin Etchegoyhen and Hélène Sauzéon
Brain Sci. 2019, 9(12), 334; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9120334 - 21 Nov 2019
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3664
Abstract
The school inclusion of students with autism is still a challenge. To address the cognitive underpinnings of school-related adaptive behaviors, 27 students with autism and 18 students with intellectual and/or severe learning disability, aged from 11 to 17, were recruited. They underwent socio-emotional [...] Read more.
The school inclusion of students with autism is still a challenge. To address the cognitive underpinnings of school-related adaptive behaviors, 27 students with autism and 18 students with intellectual and/or severe learning disability, aged from 11 to 17, were recruited. They underwent socio-emotional processing and executive functioning assessments, as well as school-related adaptive behavior and quality of life measurements. Both groups performed equally on socio-emotional and executive assessments, and they reported the same low quality of life. However, students with autism exhibited more limitations than the students with intellectual disabilities on complex school adaptive behaviors (socialization and autonomy) and problem behaviors, but both groups performed equally on more basic adaptive behaviors (school routines, communication). Multiple regression analyses highlighted between-group differences in terms of adaptive functioning profiles, which were linked with different cognitive predictors according to students’ medical conditions. The greater school-related limitations of students with autism were mostly explained by socio-emotional performance, while IQ (intellectual quotient) mostly explained the comparable between-group limitations. The low quality of life of both groups was slightly explained by executive performance. The role of both socio-emotional and executive functioning in students’ adaptive behaviors and quality of life suggests remediation targets for promoting the school inclusion of students with autism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adolescent Cognitive Development across Contexts)
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