“Hot” executive functions, such as reward-related decision-making tasks, measure the impact of incentives or motivation on cognitive performance. Motivation in this context refers to internal (i.e., ambition) or external (i.e., incentives) factors that stimulate interest in good cognitive performance [61]. “Hot” EF are mediated by vmOFC/vmPFC, anterior cingulate and limbic brain structures, where prefrontal regions appear to be closely interconnected with and exert top-down control over limbic areas of reward response, leading to mature decision-making [61]. There is evidence for enhanced risk-taking in adolescence, which may be associated with the late development of top-down executive control mechanisms over more immature reward hypersensitivity [9]. Developmental functional imaging studies of reward-related decision-making tasks observed enhanced OFC activation in children aged 9–11 years and adolescents aged 13–17 years relative to adults aged 23–29 years [65] despite no marked group differences in performance, and enhanced ventral striatal activation in adolescents relative to adults and children during reward outcome [65, 66]. During comparable performance of a monetary, two-choice decision-making task with varying levels of risk and rewards, enhanced activation was shown in adults aged 20–40
