Adolescence is a time of considerable development at the level of behaviour, cognition and the brain. This article reviews histological and brain imaging studies that have demonstrated specific changes in neural architecture during puberty and adolescence, outlining trajectories of grey and white matter development. The implications of brain development for executive functions and social cognit...

Introspection, or metacognition, is the capacity to reflect on our own thoughts and behaviours. Here, we investigated how one specific metacognitive ability (the relationship between task performance and confidence) develops in adolescence, a period of life associated with the emergence of self-concept and enhanced self-awareness. We employed a task that dissociates objective performance on a v...

AIMS We tested whether an exposure to alcohol in late adolescence, an age of rapid increase in neuroactive steroid precursors, would increase voluntary alcohol consumption in adult rats and whether this effect would be modulated by finasteride, an inhibitor of neuroactive steroid synthesis. METHODS In Experiment 1, we exposed male Wistar rats to 8% alcohol during the dark cycle for 1 week dur...

BACKGROUND Obesity, sedentary lifestyle and poor cardiorespiratory fitness in childhood may increase the risk of health problems later in life. PURPOSE The authors studied the association of early childhood weight status with cardiorespiratory fitness and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) in adolescence. The stability and associations of LTPA and fitness from childhood through adolescence...

BACKGROUND Little is known about changes in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders between childhood and adolescence, and adolescence and adulthood. METHODS We reviewed papers reporting prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders separately for childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Both longitudinal and cross-sectional papers published in the past 15 years were included. RESULTS About...

Adolescence is usually defined as the period of psychological and social transition between childhood and adulthood. The beginning of adolescence, around the onset of puberty, is characterized by large hormonal and physical changes. The transition from childhood to adulthood is also characterized by psychological changes in terms of identity, self-consciousness, and cognitive flexibility. In th...