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Considerations of Fairness in the Adolescent Brain
Author(s) -
Crone Eveline A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
child development perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1750-8606
pISSN - 1750-8592
DOI - 10.1111/cdep.12022
Subject(s) - psychology , ultimatum game , dorsolateral prefrontal cortex , perspective (graphical) , impulse (physics) , reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , prefrontal cortex , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , goal pursuit , temporoparietal junction , social decision making , impulse control , cognition , social psychology , neuroscience , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science
Abstract Adolescents experience a marked change in their evaluation of fairness, trust, and reciprocity that leads to more altruistic behavior and tendencies that are oriented toward others. In this article, I highlight advances in brain imaging research to focus on how adolescents make social decisions. Using the Ultimatum Game and the Trust Game as examples, I show that adolescents are relatively focused on the self in early adolescence, with impulse control and perspective taking increasing in later adolescence and early adulthood. These changes are accompanied by a shift in the relative contribution of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a region important for self‐referential processing, to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and temporal‐parietal junction, regions important for controlling selfish impulses and perspective taking. This shift in balance may tip adolescents toward more self‐oriented choices in early adolescence and allow them to consider consequences for others in later adolescence.