The Neuroscience of Adolescence

Description

As scientific inquiry and public interest in the adolescent brain grows, so too does the need for an accessible textbook that communicates the growing research on this topic. The Neuroscience of Adolescence is a comprehensive educational tool for developmental cognitive neurosciencestudents at all levels as it details the varying elements that shape the adolescent brain. Historical notions of adolescence have focused on the significant hormonal changes that occur as one transitions from childhood to adolescence, but new research has revealed a more nuanced picturethat helps inform our understanding of how the brain functions across the lifespan. By emphasizing the biological and neurobiological changes that occur during adolescence, this book gives students a holistic understanding of this developmental window and uniquely discusses the policyimplications of neuroscience research on the lives of young people today.

•  Provides a clear introduction to adolescent brain development that integrates cognitive neuroscience and adolescent psychology
• Includes extensive coverage of the methods used to study the adolescent brain, so readers will be better able to comprehend, evaluate and critique research based on those methods
• Places research in the real-world context of how adolescent neuroscience has informed key public policy issues

Contents

1. Whatisadolescence?
2. Puberty
3. Cognitive neuroscience methods to study the adolescent brain
4. Brain plasticity
5. Neurocognitive development
6. Motivational systems
7. The social brain
8. The implications of adolescent neuroscience on policy. 

Author

Adriana Galván, University of California, Los Angeles
Adriana Galván is an Associate Professor of Psychology at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is also the Jeffrey Wenzel Term Chair in Behavioral Neuroscience and the director of the Developmental Neuroscience Laboratory. Galván's research focuses onadolescent brain development and has informed public policy of teenage driving, sleep and juvenile justice. She received the American Psychological Association (APA) Early Career Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, APA Boyd McCandless Early Career Award, the William T. Grant Scholars Award and the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Young Investigator Award and serves as a Network Scholar for the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Jacobs Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation. She regularly teaches a popular UCLA undergraduate course on the developing brain.