Given the ongoing controversy as to how different components of forebrain reward systems are functionally organized into systems that serve to attribute hedonic value, incentive salience, learning and relative motivational significance to reward-relevant stimuli in adults, it should not be surprising that even less is known about functions of these reward-based systems during adolescence. What is clear, however, is that reward-related regions of the brain and their neurocircuitry undergo particularly marked developmental changes during adolescence.
