Re-thinking adolescent brain development: A Mentalization-Based Perspective
Martin Debbané, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences,
University of Geneva
Research Unit co-director, Office Médico-Pédagogique,
Department of Education, Canton of Geneva
Honorary Reader, Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology,
University College London
Acknowledgements
Adolescent Clinical Psychology Lab
Deborah Badoud
Francesca Knecht
Ryan Murray
Beh. Psychiatry and NeuroImaging Lab
Stephan Eliez
Marie Schaer
Anouk Imhof &
MBT clinicians at OMP
Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève
Nader Perroud
Paco Prada
London, UK
Anthony Bateman
Dickon Bevington
Peter Fonagy
Patrick Luyten
Trudie Rossouw
OUTLINE Trying to understand the sensation seeking brain
Some (Tentative) Implications from an MBT perspective
MENTALIZE
Sensation (risk) seeking youths
Thrill and Adventure seeking
Experience/Novelty seeking
4 DIMENSIONS OF SENSATION SEEKING Boredom Susceptibility
Disinhibition
Marvin Zuckerman
40 years studying sensation seeking
Tendency to seek sensations and varied, novel, complex, intense experiences …
… while being ready to engage in risk (physical, social, financial, legal, etc.) to experience the sensation itself.
Zuckerman, 1994
Sensation-seeking in the MBT Mafia
Embodied
Teleology
Two dominant hypotheses for the adolescent sensation-seeking brain
Two dominant hypotheses for the adolescent sensation-seeking brain
Maturational lag of executive networks (inhibition) in contrast to rapid maturation of emotional networks.
Pubertal hormones, through development, eventually bring sexually mature dymorphic behaviors
The sensation-seeking brain
Network sustaining reward and sensation seeking
Ventral Tegmental Area
Interoception
Insula
Prefrontal Cortex
Executive functions
Amygdala
Nucleus Accumbens
Joseph et coll., 2009, 2011, 2012
Incentive motivation
http://www.gbhealthwatch.com
Developmental Lag Hypothesis
VTA, N. Acc, Insula
Orbito frontal cortex
Sensation seeking in the adolescent brain
Cservenka et al., 2013
27 participants (6 F, 21 M) High degree de SS
27 participants (12 F, 15 M) Low degree de SS
Aged between 12-16 years
Cerebral activation WIN
Vs
Cerebral activation
No WIN
Insula / OFC
Cservenka et al., 2013
Sensation seeking in the adolescent brain
Cservenka et al., 2013
27 participants (6 F, 21 M) High degree de SS
27 participants (12 F, 15 M) Low degree de SS
Aged between 12-16 years
The sensation-seeking brain
Preliminary Conclusions
! Not necessarily linked to developmental lag
! Sensitivity ++ to reward, - - to loss
! High sensation seeking associated to learning through reward (positive reinforcement) rather than loss (punishment)
What about Puberty?
Sensation seeking and Puberty
A natural link?
Self-report studies of SS suggest the following relationships:
! Pubertal stage linked to levels of SS (peak 14 y.o.)
! Pubertal stage linked to risky behaviors
! SS linked to risky behaviors
+
-
Martin et al., 2002
Manipulating puberty in rodents
Alcohol
Consumption
X
X
Gonadectomy before puberty
Novelty
Seeking
Manipulating puberty in rodents
• Gonadal hormones have no direct effects on alcohol intake and novelty seeking in adolescent rats.
• Sensation seeking (risky and novelty seeking) cannot be reduced to pubertal hormones
The sensation-seeking brain
Preliminary Conclusions
!
Not necessarily linked to developmental lag
! Sensitivity ++ to reward,
- - to loss
! Learning through incentive motivation rather than fear of failing
! Not the direct product of pubertal hormones
! Evolutionary value : preserving novelty seeking before full sexual maturity reached.
A third (speculative) hypothesis…
Linking incentive motivation, sensationseeking and dopamine
The Dopamine Hypothesis (Monica Luciana et al.)
1) Increased dopamine availability in the adolescent brain
Wahlstrom et al., 2010
Dopamine Cell Firing
Tonic firing:
- All cells firing at a given time.
- A measure of « noise », basal activity.
Phasic firing:
- Triggered by High Salience/ Arousing/Novel Stimuli
- Associated to learning
High Salient – Arousing – Novel Stimulus?
Dopamine Cell Firing
stimuli provoke Highly salient/novel/arousing more powerful phasic signals when associated to probable reward
Incentive motivation
With higher dopamine concentrations in the brain, adolescents motivation becomes more oriented towards incentives (rise of incentive motivation)
Linking incentive motivation, sensationseeking and dopamine
The Dopamine Hypothesis (Monica Luciana et al.)
Incentive motivation: Instrumental behaviour conditioned by anticipated reward acquisition
Executive functions:
Working memory, Planification, Inhibition, etc.
2) Inverted U function of incentive motivation from childhood to adulthood
Luciana & Collins, 2012
Damn…
I would have won the Presidention elections…
Adolescent Sensation-Seeking Brain
Recapitulation
Developmental lag hypothesis can’t account for all SS phenomena
Hormonal probably
independent system from reward system
X
In high SS, positive reward more associated to learning
Increased dopamine in the adolescent brain?
X
Novelty seeking adaptive to promote emigration for familial nest
Adolescent brain geared towards highly salient/ arousing/novel stimuli as a basis for social learning
Implications from an MBT perspective
Self mental state
Other mental state
Overlapping for
Self and Other
Saliency of Self-Other Axis
Social family time: extinction
Salience is not determined by Dopamine, but by PEERS
Implications from an MBT perspective
Opening or closing of the epistemic highway
SOCIAL LEARNING is heavily dependant on opportunities seized in the environment; attachment dimensions play critical role (Fonagy, Gergely and coll.)
Implications from an MBT perspective
Opening or closing of the epistemic highway
congruent
Vrticka, Sander, Badoud, Eliez, Debbané, under review
incongruent
Implications from an MBT perspective
Gradually learning the Other’s point of view
AGE effects on Congruence vs Incongruencce
vACC
Anterior Insula
Emotion regulation Conflict Monitoring Self Monitoring
Visceral embodied response
Vrticka, Sander, Badoud, Eliez, Debbané, under review
Congruence Incongruence
Implications from an MBT perspective
Avoidance as the Barrier to epistemic highway
AVOIDANCE inverse of AGE effects
vACC
Anterior Insula
Emotion regulation Conflict Monitoring Self Monitoring
Visceral embodied response
Vrticka, Sander, Badoud, Eliez, Debbané, under review
A final question
In today’s world, are peer relationships evolving towards more TRUST, or towards more AVOIDANCE
Insecurity in school settings What kinds of things do you actively watch out for when you are on the premisses of your school (n=1’065; Escofet, 2009) Pierre Escofet, sociologist
Can adults do anything about it? How many times have you seen a professor break down and cry in class (n=1’065; Escofet, 2009) Number of students
% of group
Yes, once
229
21.8
Yes, 2-3x
72
6.8
Yes, 4x or more
37
3.5
Never
714
67.9
No answer
13
1.2
Danger: Arrested Development
Violent behaviour as an indicator of how youth are coping
Criminal charges against adolescents
5x
Geneva Study on Young Offenders
Preliminary results
Participants 23 youth offenders (YO group; 4 females; Mage = 15.81) 23 community adolescents matched for gender, age and level of externalizing symptoms (YSR scale; EXT group; 4 females; Mage = 15.8) 23 community adolescents matched for gender, age and level of externalizing symptoms (YSR scale; EXT group; 5 females; Mage = 15.7)
Emotion recognition in detained and control samples of male adolescents (Zaharia, Brosch, Badoud & Debbané, in preparation)
Group
Age (years)
Control (N=17) 16.11 (1.42)
Detained (N=14) 16.56 (0.93)
Vocabulary (WISC-IV/WAIS-III)
10.41 (2.29)
7.86 (3.03)
Block Design (WISC-IV/WAIS-III)
11.35 (2.26)
7.14 (4.45)
Emotion recognition in detained and control samples of male adolescents (Zaharia, Brosch, Badoud & Debbané, in preparation)
Geneva Emotion Recognition Task (Schlegel, Grandejean, & Scherer, 2012)
Audio-video clip duration: 2-4 sec.,
(verbal content: 2 pseudo-linguistic sentences)
Emotion recognition in detained and control samples of male adolescents (Zaharia, Brosch, Badoud & Debbané, in preparation)
Stimuli:
83 videos of actors: multimodal expression of 14 emotions (verbal content: 2 pseudo-linguistic sentences)
14 emotions:
- 6 positive: pride, joy, amusement, pleasure, relief, interest
- 7 negative: anger, panic, fear, despair, disgust, anxiety, irritation, sadness
- surprise
Interest:
- associated to curiosity, exploration, information seeking (Izard, 2009)
- Not detectable from static pictures; rely on tempral dynamics of emerging expression
- Conveyed by face + body: characterictic « freezing of the body »
- As babies, we start noticing the « attentional parsing of the environment » performed by our caregivers.
- Does not necessarily require ostensive communication by caregivers.
A working hypothesis
Adolescence may increase the normative levels of dopamine in the adolescent brain.
This puts SALIENCE at the center stage of adolescent development
In cases of lives with repeated TRAUMA, the very recognition of interest on faces may compromise social development and the acquisition of shared social values.
An emotion such as expressed INTEREST by close others may constitute a GUIDE TO SALIENCY for adolescents, potentially opening up a second (non-ostensive) lane to the epistemic highway.
Is your INTEREST at the heart of the
INQUISITIVE, NOT KNOWING STANCE?
Thank you for your attention!
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