The social environment reaches heightened salience in adolescence when self-monitoring, sensitivity to evaluation, and awareness of others’ perspectives become increasingly apparent (Choudhury et al. 2006). Brain structures subserving socio-emotional processing continue to mature in this age group with demonstrable effects in blood-oxygenation- level-dependent (BOLD) response. Amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex activation to facial affect processing is prominent in adolescence relative to adulthood (Monk et al. 2003; Yang et al. 2003) with shifts toward more dorsolateral prefrontal activation with age (Yurgelun-Todd and Killgore 2006). Differences in activation patterns, with girls showing bilateral and boys only right prefrontal response, may underlie sex-related nuances in behavioral response to affect and emotion. Nonetheless, adolescents as a group show elevated activity in bottom-up emotion processing centers (Hare et al. 2008), suggesting that they are more likely to be influenced by emotional context than adults. As a result, poor decisions are often made in states of emotional reactivity. Although increased frontoamygdala activity during emotional processing habituates with repeated exposure, individuals with higher self-rated trait anxiety show less adaptation over time.
