How Adolescent Brain Circuits Perceive Risk

Key points

New research reveals that as we grow up, different brain circuits control how we perceive and avoid threats.

Neural connections explain why adults are more risk-averse than teenagers.

These findings lay the foundations to developing age-specific mental health interventions.

You’ve probably noticed it yourself: As a teenager, you chased thrills headlong—late-night parties, first dates, impulsive dares—while today you hesitate before clicking “Buy,” let alone bungee jumping. What if this isn’t just growing up; it is your brain rewiring itself?

A recent study from UCLA offers an explanation for this risk-taking phenomenon. The team investigated how three key brain regions, our “executive” prefrontal cortex, “emotional” amygdala, and “reward-seeking” nucleus accumbens, connec