Thus, enhanced appetitive and attenuated aversive sensitivities are seen during adolescence not only to alcohol but to other drugs and natural stimuli as well, suggesting potential commonalities in their neural substrates. Likely neural candidates include, for instance, the marked adolescent-typical alterations in DA projections and reward-relevant forebrain recipients of this input that were discussed earlier (see Doremus-Fitzwater et al., 2010, for review). Substantial work is still needed, however, to characterize the nature of these and other neural alterations during adolescence and to determine how these transformations contribute to adolescents processing rewards and aversive stimuli differently than do adults. .
