Adolescent brain development and behavior

The symposium on ‘The Adolescent Brain Development and Behaviour’ was organized in honor of the 40th anniversary of Youthdale Treatment Clinics in Toronto. The idea for a symposium dedicated to the adolescent brain was conceived over a year ago and was stimulated by recent rapid progress in neurobiological research focused on this developmental period. Puberty is a time of dramatic physiological, cognitive and emotional changes associated with increased risk for psychiatric disorders as well as increased risk-taking behavior. The increase in risk for psychiatric disorders may be a function of biological changes in gonadal hormones, or may result from increased emotional stress, or an interaction of these factors. Brain structures show dramatic changes in myelination, synaptogenesis and synaptic pruning from late childhood to early adolescence. Learning and experience probably interact with the biologically programmed developmental influences modifying synaptic connections and region-specific structure and...