Recent studies have mapped developmental modulation of motivational systems such as the striatum in salient and motivational contexts. Seminal work by Ernst, Galvan, Luna and Crone and others supports the notion that adolescents show an enhanced sensitivity to incentives relative to children and adults within areas of the dorsal and ventral striatum[36-39]. For example, a recent study by van Leijenhorst and colleagues [40] observed exaggerated ventral striatal responses in adolescents during the anticipation and receipt of a monetary reward (Figure 2). The magnitude of ventral striatum response to reward cues has been linked to real-world behavior, with greater ventral striatal activity to rewards being predictive of real-life risk-taking tendencies[41]. These studies together suggest that striatal responses show an inverted U function across development in response to incentives.
