because there isn't much of one to tell.) Animal studies suggest that some of the changes in dopaminergic activity are directly attributable to the hormonal changes of puberty, that some are indirectly attributable to them (in that the presence of gonadal hormones may catalyze other processes), and that some are merely coincident with them, perhaps programmed to unfold along a developmental schedule established long before adolescence (Sisk & Foster, 2004). Conversely, it has also been hypothesized that the maturation of brain systems implicated in self-regulation is independent of puberty and perhaps more contextually dependent, but, again, there is little research that has examined this systematically. If the development of cognitive control is in fact experience-dependent, it is important to study which experiences matter most. Parents and educators understandably want to know whether it is possible to facilitate the development of self-regulation.
