Child Psychology Flashcards
What is ‘brain development’?
The decelopment of neurons and the establishment of connections in different parts of the brain.
At what age is the brain fully developed? and how does it develop?
25
From front to back
What is myelination?
When neurons get their myelin sheath which insulates them and allows them to pass messages along neural pathways.
What is the last part of the brain to develop and what is its function?
The pre-frontal cortex
Helps with decision making and controls impulsive behaviour
What is the function of the Ventral Striatum?
Involved in decision making and reward perception.
How does the Ventral Striatum link to risk taking?
The ventral striatum develops before the pre-frontal cortex. Therefore the adolescent brain is more sensitive to potential rewards and may act more impulsively.
Name the 2 background studies to support pre-adult brain development
Casey
Eshel
Give a summary of Casey’s study
Wanted to investigate the role of the ventral striatum in relation to reward perception.
Participants were identified as high or low delayers.
It was found that low delayers preformed poorly on a control task and could not easily resist temptation.
Low delayers had heightened activity oin their ventral striatum.
Give a summary of Eshel’s study
Adults and adolescents were faced with a choice : “High probability of low financial reward or low probability of a high financial reward”
There was significantly more activity in the frontal cortex of the adults when making a risky decision in comparison to the adolescents.
What was the aim of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study?
To investigate if there were any neural differences in activity between adolescents and adults when faced with a risk taking scenario.
(Activity in the ventral striatum when gambling)
Describe the sample used in Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
A final sample of 20 adolescents and 17 adults.
All right handed
Recruited using a Poster and advert campaign.
No one had previous diagnosis of mental illness.
Explain the procedure in Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
Participants were asked questions about their disposable income.
They were given $20 for taking part and were told they would have the chance to gamble the money.
P’s were called back a week later for an fMRI scan. During the scan they were showed 144 spinners with a 50/50 chance of winning or losing money. They were tomd any one of the spinners could be the real one. Asked whether they accept or reject each gamble.
Explain the behavioural results of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
Adults and Adolescents behaved similarly when no risk was involved.
The higher the expected value the more likely the adolescents would take the gamble than the adults.
On trials with a positive E.V, adolescents took the gamble 65% of the time, adults only took it 48% of the time.
Explain the neurological results of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
- More activity in the Ventral Striatum of adolescents
- Adults showed virtually no activity
- Ventral Striatum got more activated as the EV increased
What conclusions can be made from Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study?
- The adolescent brain places greater value on potential rewards
- Adolescents are more likely to take a risk due to increased ventral striatum activation.
