Considerations of fairness in the adolescent brain
Abstract
Abstract Adolescents experience a marked change in their evaluation of fairness, trust, and reciprocity that leads to more altruistic behavior and tendencies that are oriented toward others. In this article, I highlight advances in brain imaging research to focus on how adolescents make social decisions. Using the Ultimatum Game and the Trust Game as examples, I show that adolescents are relatively focused on the self in early adolescence, with impulse control and perspective taking increasing in later adolescence and early adulthood. These changes are accompanied by a shift in the relative contribution of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a region important for self-referential processing, to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and temporal-parietal junction, regions important for controlling selfish impulses and perspective taking. This shift in balance may tip adolescents toward more self-oriented choices in early adolescence and allow them to consider consequences for others in later adolescence.
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DLPFC has been shown to play a crucial role in implementing social decisions, and this function still undergoes considerable development.
“DLPFC has been shown to play a crucial role in the context of implementing social decisions and previous evidence that this function still undergoes considerable development (Guroglu et al., 2011;Steinbeis et al., 2012;Crone, 2013).”
From Age-related differences in function and structure of rSMG and reduced functional connectivity with DLPFC explains heightened emotional egocentricity bias in childhood (2015) · cites this paper as Crone, 2013
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- Authors
- Crone, E. A.
- Affiliations
- Leiden University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Crone, Eveline A
- ORCID
- Crone, Eveline A
- Venue
- Child Development Perspectives
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2013-05-11
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 97-103
- ISSN
- 1750-8592 (ISSN-L)
- 1750-8606
- OpenAlex
- W2037365909
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Child Development Perspectives (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- NWO-VIDI
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Keywords
- adolescent brain development, fairness, trust, reciprocity, altruism, social decision-making, ultimatum game, trust game, impulse control, perspective taking, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction, self-referential processing
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