The DOI matches its Crossref record; 191 of the 195 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Developmental changes in dopamine neurotransmission in adolescence: Behavioral implications and issues in assessment
Open accessAbstract
Adolescence is characterized by increased risk-taking, novelty-seeking, and locomotor activity, all of which suggest a heightened appetitive drive. The neurotransmitter dopamine is typically associated with behavioral activation and heightened forms of appetitive behavior in mammalian species, and this pattern of activation has been described in terms of a neurobehavioral system that underlies incentive-motivated behavior. Adolescence may be a time of elevated activity within this system. This review provides a summary of changes within cortical and subcortical dopaminergic systems that may account for changes in cognition and affect that characterize adolescent behavior. Because there is a dearth of information regarding neurochemical changes in human adolescents, models for assessing links between neurochemical activity and behavior in human adolescents will be described using molecular genetic techniques. Furthermore, we will suggest how these techniques can be combined with other methods such as pharmacology to measure the impact of dopamine activity on behavior and how this relation changes through the lifespan.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“An adolescent-limited increase in IM is a positive development that may confer evolutionary advantages and that serves ultimately--through the promotion of learning--to encourage a sense of agency as youth make the transition to adult independence (Spear, 2000; Wahlstrom et al., 2010).”
From Incentive Motivation, Cognitive Control, and the Adolescent Brain: Is It Time for a Paradigm Shift? (2012) · cites this paper as Wahlstrom et al., 2010
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Childhood and adolescence are sensitive periods in which these systems develop and change [26–29], making them particularly vulnerable to insult.”
From Psychological impacts of “screen time” and “green time” for children and adolescents: A systematic scoping review (2020) · cites this paper as [26]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“The brain mechanisms of interest here show a distinctive pattern of development: subcortical regions involved in incentive motivation develop faster than the prefrontal regions that exert inhibition in the interests of long-term consequences (Gladwin et al., 2011;Wahlstrom et al., 2010).”
From A motivation model of sex addiction – Relevance to the controversy over the concept (2022) · cites this paper as Wahlstrom et al., 2010
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“Marked developmental alterations are seen in the DA system through adolescence and into adulthood, as reviewed recently elsewhere (Ernst et al, 2009; Galvan, 2010; Wahlstrom et al, 2010).”
From Rewards, aversions and affect in adolescence: emerging convergences across laboratory animal and human data (2011) · cites this paper as Wahlstrom et al, 2010
In the citing paper
“Marked developmental alterations are seen in the DA system through adolescence and into adulthood, as reviewed recently elsewhere (Ernst et al, 2009; Galvan, 2010; Wahlstrom et al, 2010).”
From Rewards, aversions and affect in adolescence: emerging convergences across laboratory animal and human data (2011) · cites this paper as Wahlstrom et al, 2010
In the citing paper
“Importantly, biologically determined trait-based individual differences very likely interact with these age-based trends to determine developmental outcomes (Wahlstrom et al. 2010).”
From Incentive Motivation, Cognitive Control, and the Adolescent Brain: Is It Time for a Paradigm Shift? (2012) · cites this paper as Wahlstrom et al. 2010
In the citing paper
“Dopamine receptor expression also peaks around the age of puberty, though only for specific receptor subtypes in specific neuronal populations (reviewed in (Wahlstrom et al., 2010)).”
From Does puberty mark a transition in sensitive periods for plasticity in the associative neocortex? (2017) · cites this paper as Wahlstrom et al., 2010
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593 · Cited by 20,391
Plum, F. (1960) · Archives of Neurology · doi:10.1001/archneur.1960.03840090124020 · Cited by 10,388
A neural substrate of prediction and reward
Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.275.5306.1593 · Cited by 9,388
Parallel organization of functionally segregated circuits linking basal ganglia and cortex
Alexander, G. E., DeLong, M. R., & Strick, P. L. (1986) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.09.030186.002041 · Cited by 8,527
Influence of life stress on depression: moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene
Caspi, A., Sugden, K., Moffitt, T. E., Taylor, A., Craig, I. W., Harrington, H., McClay, J., Mill, J., Martin, J., Braithwaite, A., et al. (2003) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1083968 · Cited by 8,120
The adolescent brain and age-related behavioral manifestations
Spear, L. P. (2000) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/s0149-7634(00)00014-2 · Cited by 5,433 · cited 1×
“…such as shifts in brain matter composition (see papers by Paus, Gogtay, Thompson, and Schmithorst (this issue)), modifications of neural synchrony (Uhlhaas et al., 2009), increased hormonal release (Styne, 1994), and neurochemical alterations (Doremus-Fitzwater et al., this issue; Spear, 2000).”
BackgroundDahlstroem, A., & Fuxé, K. (1964) · PubMed · Cited by 5,133
Holroyd, C. B., & Coles, M. G. H. (2002) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.109.4.679 · Cited by 4,027
(1998) · Cited by 4,012
Implications of Normal Brain Development for the Pathogenesis of Schizophrenia
Weinberger, D. R. (1987) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1987.01800190080012 · Cited by 3,724
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Jones, 1984, Laminar distribution of cortical efferent cells, Vol. 1, 521
- Seamans, 1995, Selective impairment on a delayed radial arm task following local administration of a selective D1, but not a D2, antagonist into the prefrontal cortex, Abstracts of the Society for Neuroscience, 21, 1942
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 301–310 of 310
Padmanabhan, A. (2013) · D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh)
The Influence of early sexual debut on the formation of sexual behavior in adulthood
Bondarenko, Y. D., Murashkina, A. O., Mozghova, T. P., & Зеленська, К. О. (2025) · Psychiatry Neurology and Medical Psychology · doi:10.26565/2312-5675-2025-32-04
Perez, P. M. V., Hill, L. D., Crooks, K. E., Sutherland, B. D., Laird, A. R., Trucco, E. M., & Sutherland, M. T. (2026) · Frontiers in Adolescent Medicine · doi:10.3389/fradm.2026.1741884
“Within striatal circuits, synaptic pruning, dendritic spine remodeling, and changes in dopaminergic receptor expression alter how rewarding stimuli are evaluated and translated into action (37–39).”
Ojha, A., Henry, T. R., Jones, N. P., Shirtcliff, E. A., & Ladouceur, C. D. (2026) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/s41386-026-02378-2
“Puberty — the cascade of neuroendocrinological processes by which children become adults [1] — ushers in adolescence, a critical period of neurodevelopment [2] characterized by increases in exploration and experimentation observed across species [3, 4].”
Thomas, S. A., Gonsalves, M. A., LeBlanc, G. L., Lorenc, E., Metrik, J., Frank, M. J., Ryan, S., Olenik, E., Brick, L., Spirito, A., et al. (2026) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/s41386-026-02444-9
“Because dopamine-related neurophysiology increases during adolescence [48, 49, 52, 62, 136 – 141], this developmental stage is particularly important for examining its link to CU.”
SÖZÜÇOK, T. (2026) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2026.1824667
Carr, K. A., Hite, M. J., Dobiesz, O. J., Gailor, M., Paluch, R. A., Wang, L., Quattrin, T., Anzman‐Frasca, S., & Epstein, L. H. (2026) · JMIR Research Protocols · doi:10.2196/99962
Ocakoğlu, B. K., Tonyali, A., Karabağ, U., Taş, Z. Y., Kasap, D., & Karaçetin, G. (2026) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-026-08548-2
“In this vulnerable period of development, dopamine and other neurotransmitter receptor systems are still actively developing and critical communication pathways between the cortico-striatal systems have not yet been fully established [57].”
Sex differences in human deep grey matter microstructure emerge during adolescence
Filippi, C. G., Giedd, J. N., Uluğ, A. M., & Watts, R. (2026) · Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2026.101811
“After puberty, males show greater restricted diffusion in striatal nuclei, consistent with hormonally influenced maturation (Padmanabhan and Luna, 2014; Wahlstrom et al., 2010), and sex differences in dopaminergic/opioid receptor distribution in the nucleus accumbens (Sharp et al., 2022).”
Phadke, A. M., & Dai, J. (2026) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2026.106968
Metadata
- Authors
- Wahlstrom, D., Collins, P., White, T., & Luciana, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Luciana, Monica
- Venue
- Brain and Cognition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-02
- Volume
- 72
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 146-159
- ISSN
- 0278-2626 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2815132
- OpenAlex
- W2168203121
- Cited by
- 311
- References
- 195
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 0.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Brain and Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH017069)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA017843, R01DA017843)
- National Center for Research Resources (M01RR000400, M01-RR00400)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Keywords
- dopamine signaling, adolescence, appetitive behavior, risk-taking, novelty seeking, dopaminergic system, molecular genetics, pharmacological evaluation, lifespan development, cognitive and emotional development
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Animals, Behavior, Brain, Dopamine, Humans, Neural Pathways, Synaptic Transmission, Adolescent Development
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
