One of the first studies to examine reward related processes across the full spectrum of development from childhood to adulthood was completed by Galvan and colleagues 6 in 6 to 29 year olds. They showed that ventral striatal activation was sensitive to varying magnitudes of monetary reward 49 and that this response was exaggerated during adolescence, relative to children and adolescents 6 (see Figure 3), indicative of signal increases 6 or more sustained activation 83. In contrast to the pattern in the ventral striatum, orbital prefrontal regions, showed protracted development across these ages (Figure 2b).
