Studies in rodents and humans have shown that adolescents exhibit greater “impulsive choice,” defined as the preference for smaller rewards that occur sooner over larger delayed rewards, as measured with delay-discounting tasks (Adriani and Laviola, 2003; Steinberg et al., 2009). It is notable that in human studies only younger adolescents exhibit this difference; with delay discounting reaching adult levels by age 16–17 (Steinberg et al., 2009). Adolescent humans also score higher on the Sensation-Seeking Scale than adults, with males exhibiting higher levels than females (Zuckerman et al., 1978). Sensation seeking is “the need for varied, novel, and complex sensations and experiences…” (Zuckerman et al., 1979, p. 10), which may occur independently, or together with impulsivity. Sensation seeking is greatest during early- to mid-adolescence and lower thereafter, while impulse control appears to steadily improve through the teenage years, suggesting that they are subserved by different biological processes (Steinberg et al., 2008). Consistent with human evidence of heightened adolescent sensation seeking, adolescent rodents prefer novelty (Adriani et al., 1998; Douglas et al., 2003; Stansfield et al., 2004), exhibit greater novelty-induced locomotion (Stansfield
