Another factor that could account for some adolescent behavioral differences is the impact of emotions (valence, feelings, arousal, and specific emotional states) on behavior. Behavioral disparities may arise if adolescents experience emotions differently, or if emotions differently influence decision making during this period of heightened emotional intensity and volatility (Arnett, 1999; Buchanan et al., 1992). Emotion is often thought to cloud rational decision making. While this may be true in some cases (especially when emotional content is unrelated or irrelevant to a decision context), recent work has examined how emotions may improve certain decisions. For example, the somatic marker hypothesis states that in ambiguous situations, emotional processes can advantageously guide behavior (Damasio, 1994). The Iowa Gambling Task was designed to test decision making under conditions of uncertainty (Bechara et al., 1994). Individuals with lesions of the ventromedial PFC or amygdala have difficulty favoring the advantageous risk-avoiding strategy, suggesting that deficiencies in integrating emotional information can lead to poor decisions (Bechara et al., 1999; Bechara et al., 1996). Adolescents and adults may differ in the way they integrate emotional information in
