Module 3
Understanding Adolescent Reward Seeking
This module will cover the neural features of the Reward system in adolescents including responses to unpleasant or undesirable stimuli. In the previous module you learned how the arousal system in the brain is ancient and there for the purpose of restoring you to a state of equilibrium after stressful encounters. This applies to adolescents as well. In this module 3 we are going to talk about something you will be all familiar with and that is, the constant search for excitement and pleasure that seems to be part of adolescence. This is in fact not a hindrance but for a teacher is an opportunity to get to know your adolescent students and to get the best out of them creatively. It’s a time for a real social brain connection that you can have some strong and effective influence over.
Adolescents Risk Taking Propensity
There is an increase in the neural activity of reward related regions of the brain in adolescence peaking at mid adolescence and declining in adult-
hood although there are other psychosocial and neurological factors e.g. drug and alcohol addiction where the reward regions of the brain may
be influenced in adulthood (Weafer et al., (2019).
What does this mean? It is important for learning, motivation and behavioural development. You can take full creative advantage of how crucial this neural growth is and how important it is to your relationships with your students.
Imagine one of your students who excels at everything in the way of sport or physical activity. In class they chatter constantly about their latest achievements and goals. This can be annoying when you want them to work instead. What might you do to motivate them to do your task. Because their pleasure is very physical you might take a brain break if, after you have listened and shared some of their excitement you still can’t get them to concentrate. Brain breaks with movement and music help adolescents to calm their excitement and afterwards help them to concentrate. The change in their behaviour is in the activity and the pleasure (the reward). You have listened to the students and have a design in place to help them move on to better choices.
In contrast, Imagine a student who is absolutely addicted to risky behaviours for example, drug taking, hopping on and off moving trains or drinking to excess. They come into class dozy or aggressive. How do you help this student to understand the risks and make better choices, at the same time provide them with creative alternatives that will peak their interest?
You need a well-designed reward system that includes understanding, acknowledgement, a creative outlet for this student as an alternative to needing immediately to concentrate. Please note part of this training is to provide you with the skills to pass on information about brain function to your students and to create an environment of understanding regarding how to help those students who may be disruptive. You will be helping all your students to develop mentalisation if you keep this in mind.
Image via Lawrence Krowdeed, Unspalsh
The Reward System in the Adolescent Brain
Development of the adolescent brain is dynamic and moving toward intensifying within network connections (called neural integration) (increases in myelination of neurons ) and weakening between some connections (involving reduction in grey matter and pruning of neurons).
The brain reward circuitry is ancient and critical for seeking, finding and consuming survival, essential natural rewards e.g. food, water, warmth, sexual partners and social stimuli. The predominance of the reward system functioning coincides with the rapid increase in the social brain interconnections in adolescents.
Maturation of inhibitory control is associated with increasing involvement of the frontal and pre-frontal cortical networks. Understanding the development of the brain is often described as a bottom-up progression. In adolescence, the limbic regions and reward circuitry are gaining as much mileage and experience as possible before they reach the pinnacle which is the development of higher order thinking.
Image via Baruk Granda, Unspalsh
The Reward Circuitry (RC)
The RC involves a response to new and stimulating actions and ideas, increased risk taking and can lead to substance abuse as a result of the primitive pleasure/reward seeking drive. The responses in adolescence are very different and highly complex compared to adulthood. Pre-dispositions to addictive side of the reward circuitry is often genetic in origin and shows a trend increased risk- taking biases and reduced VS activity.
There are three key considerations when learning about the reward circuitry:
Dopamine
Image: Dopamine
The first is Dopamine- Dopamine is a neuromodulator/neurotransmitter involved in reward and motivational pathways. It is also recognised as potentially involved in some psychiatric conditions. Dopamine has a role in processing pleasure, motivational and desirable behaviours. and is released when we experience pleasant or rewarding stimuli. Neuromodulators are small subunits of protein called peptides. There are more than 40 types in the brain systems with the two most common being glutamate (excitatory neurotransmitter in the cortex) and GAPA most common inhibitory neurotransmitter)
Image via Chermiti Mohamed, Unspalsh
The Ventral Striatum (VS)
The second consideration is The Ventral Striatum (VS) - extending to the reward relevant sub-cortical region. The VS is located near the cerebellum (associated with the limbic circuit) the VS activity is about learning the value of a particular action. In adolescence there may be increased activity in ventral striatum when receiving rewards although differences in this activity can relate to the action where it is taking place and the reward intensity.
Image: Human dopamine projections
Behavioural Sensitivity
The third consideration of the reward circuitry in adolescence is that behavioural sensitivity to rewards is suggested to peak in adolescence and gradually decline in adulthood, with increases in, for example, sweet substances peaking in mid adolescence and dropping during late adolescence.
Reward stimuli range from “desirable tastes, social peers, novelty of e.g. drugs of abuse.
Neuromodulators, Neurotransmitters, Rewards and Pleasure Seeking
Some details pertinent to these considerations:
Dopamine
Look at the images that relate to dopamine release in adolescents. Think of some of the potentially risky things they do in class that might
give them pleasure. Is there a way you can turn the risk into a creative
activity that brings reward, for example brain breaks with music and
dancing.
The first is Dopamine- Dopamine is a neuromodulator/neurotransmitter involved in reward and motivational pathways. As discussed above, Dopamine is a key neuromodulator/neurotransmitter in the reward circuitry.
Valuing Rewards
This consideration is about understanding how individuals value the reward after they strive to achieve a task you have set for them. The influence here is from The Ventral Striatum (VS)which communicates with the reward relevant sub-cortical region –. The VS is located near the cerebellum (associated with the limbic circuit) the VS activity is about learning the value of a particular action. In adolescence there may be increased activity in ventral striatum when receiving rewards although differences in this activity can relate to the action where it is taking place and the reward intensity. Think of a meaningful reward you can grant your students in the immediate aftermath of a task achieved.
Dopamine hit –risk taking brings pleasure
Adventure-Dopamine, motivational
Behavioural sensitivity - Increase in sugar intake peaks in adolescence
Behavioural Sensitivity
The third element of the reward circuitry in adolescence is that behavioural sensitivity to rewards is suggested to peak in early adolescence and gradually declines in adulthood, with increases in, for example, in consuming sweet substances.
Reward stimuli range from “desirable tastes, social peers, novelty of e.g. drugs of abuse”. Don’t forget to reward your students in some way for achieving a task you have set them, even if the achievement is small, let no opportunity to praise go unnoticed. The Nurtured Heart Approach uses a strategy of praise that is part of the three stands™ Stand one – not to energise negative behaviours. Stand two – look for every opportunity to praise even the smallest of achievements and stand three set simple rules in the negative for example, no swearing, no shouting’ with consequences that are known having been collaboratively negotiated and understood by every student and the teacher. Encouraging Positive Behavior In 'Challenging' Children: The Nurtured Heart Approach™
Achievement – and learning - Dopamine
Images (top to bottom) via Lawrence Krowdeed, Leiada Krözjhen, Kenny Eliason, Leah hetteberg, Ezequiel Garrido. Unsplash.
The reward –ventral striatum – the value of actions
Adolescent Neurobehavioural Response to Aversive Stimuli
Unpleasant stimuli and negative consequences typically evoke danger in adults. However, Adolescents are generally not risk averse in terms of response to aversive stimuli, threats or potential punishment.
Reward Omission
Reward Omission is the situation when an expected reward is not delivered even though an individual has learned previously to associate a particular stimulus with that reward. This is why it is important not to promise something that can’t be carried through. Behaviourally can manifest in lack of trust, scepticism etc.,
An example of this may be that a student has made progress and the teacher fails a) to notice and b) to praise or offer a reward for the effort.
Aversive Response
The aversive response sometimes but not always is demonstrated behaviourally e.g. this response may be responsible for adolescent propensity to drink to excess where the unpleasant side of this (cost) is outweighed by the perceived benefit in addition to other risky behaviours (that is, the initial feeling of euphoria coupled with the excitement of challenging the risk). An example in the classroom context is a teacher reprimanding a student for speaking out of turn. While the reprimand aims to teach the student something and suffer the consequences of their behaviour, it is perceived by the student as a punishment. For example, the adolescent is embarrassed/humiliated by the teacher’s reprimand in front of their peers.
Adolescent risk behaviour commonly occurs in social situations and the amygdala emotion response can be inflamed in the presence of peers. This may trigger a response of determination by the adolescent to challenge or punish the teacher in return. There is an overlap between the aversive role of the amygdala and the involvement of the amygdala in emotional responses to social stimuli for e.g. unpleasant stimuli invoke negative emotions and social stimuli are effective in both positive and negative emotions (called the social emotional bias).
Reward Systems and Weight in Adolescents
Reward and punishment sensitivity, neuropsychological and personality factors are associated with “impulse control” issues in adolescence for example, obesity and eating disorders.
High body mass index (BMI) in adolescents has been correlated with gray matter volume changes in reward processing regions of the brain.
Some Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has shown decreased VS function and increased activity in somatosensory cortex of obese adolescents during processing of food rewards.
fMRI studies have also shown that overweight adolescents show abnormal structural changes in Hippocampal activity that manifests as emotional eating and lack of control behaviours
While dieting behaviour is sometimes the norm in adolescence some individuals present with pathological behaviours for example, anorexia nervosa (AN)
Puzzling neural responses with suggestion that restrictive eating is initially (only) rewarding with complex possibly unrelated neural changes later in the illness
Varying hypotheses identify
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earlier (in AN illness) rather than later, influence of the reward systems in restrictive eating.
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Elevated activity within the VS and frontal systems during unexpected reward receipt.
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Greater variability in adolescents which requires further research
As a teacher you will encounter students suffering from a variety of
eating disorders. Understanding how conditions like eating disorders in adolescence are related to reward circuitry is important, as these
students are often subject to unpleasant bullying or isolation from other students and this can contribute to depression and/or suicidality.
That said, there is extensive research being conducted into reward systems and weight issues in adolescents. The importance of curbing negative attitudes relating to eating habits or eating disorders e.g. poor eating control, bulimia, anorexia nervosa, etc., in adolescents is imperative, given that there is research demonstrating that regions of the brain to do with reward circuitry can be overactive.
Some significant factors relating to reward systems and weight issues:
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The somatosensory cortex (primary and secondary (Sl or Sll) receives sensory information from receptors throughout the body via the thalamus. It processes touch, shape, size and texture. Also has a role in emotional processing and regulation including identifying emotional significance of stimuli which may be one reason behind what people label as ‘emotional eating’. Remember that many of us with mature self-awareness know that they may eat to satisfy an emotional state, the significance of which is, this is being processed in the reward system in the brain.
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In adolescence heightened emotional reactivity makes it difficult generally for adolescents to control reward seeking.
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In adolescents with high (Body mass index) BMI inhibitory control mechanisms are potentially impulsive and overwhelming.
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Anorexia Nervosa (AN) - (Lloyd et al., 2025)
There are suggestions of involvement of the reward system circuitry early in AN demonstrating elevated activity in Ventral Striatum and frontal systems during unexpected reward receipt, however, more research is needed. It is crucial that your adolescent students understand this to prevent bullying of students with weight issues. It is also important because of ongoing research not to classify eating disorders in the same category as self-harming disorders. They are all complex and subject to ongoing research. Research has also identified individual differences and differences in brain functions relating to eating disorders and self-harm disorders and research is continuing. Self-harm and suicidality are addressed in module 5 -crisis intervention.
Further Research is ongoing.
Musical Enjoyment and the Reward System
Music, the Brain, and Adolescent Wellbeing
Music is commonly enjoyed as a significant stimulus that triggers the reward circuitry. For adolescents music helps them cope with stress. Mapping the
various features of music processing in the brain involves input from external stimuli (the music) and responses in the somatosensory system of the brain including interoception and proprioception and vestibular responses to music. Mapping the actual networking of the reward system in relation to listening to music is complex given individual listeners variable moods, attention focus, motivations, learning and acculturation and other relational or environmental factor.
Interoception is the awareness of internal signals e.g. heart rate, respiration, emotional awareness (the feeling the music evokes) and the brains interpretation of how the music makes you feel. Interoception is important for well-being and mental and physical health.
Proprioception is the body’s awareness of its position and movement in space. Subconscious process that allows movement without thinking.
Regarding responses to music it is difficult to know even with neuroimaging, “when a response happens’ and “where exactly is it triggered in the brain” (p.157) Reybrouck, M., & Eerola, T. (2022). Musical Enjoyment and Reward: From Hedonic Pleasure to Eudaimonic Listening. Behavioral Sciences,12(5), 154. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12050154
Music as a neuroinformed strategy to use in class is addressed in module 4.
Music listening is based on 2 assumptions:
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music as a temporal and sounding art, is a source of vibrational and transferable energy that impinges on the senses and
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music can be valued as a reward or stressor, therefore listening can be adaptive or maladaptive.
This may also reflect differences in individual likes and dislikes.
Differing Perspectives on the Neural Role of Music
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The challenge of listening to music can be ‘ cognitive’ ‘affective’ ‘emotional’ ‘psychological’ as well as ‘physical -mental experiences of a bodily state which arises from the brain interpreting what emotion it evokes.
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Music listening may entail the management and regulation of attention and arousal, somewhat analogous to the mechanism of coping with stress. Therefore, music is experienced as a stressor or a reward.
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The cognitive approach has neurobiological roots. This suggests there is an empowering aspect to music that is mediated between the mesolimbic reward circuity and cognition. These neural mechanisms enable top-down processes to allow previous experience, knowledge, and meaning to shape the perception and interpretation of musical stimuli so as to make them pleasurable to hear.
Some Interesting Facts about the Reward Circuitry
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Despite the neural circuitry for reward, individual differences may mean there is different connectivity between auditory sensory processing areas (superior temporal gyrus) and emotional and social processing (medial prefrontal cortex, insula) which may explain the highly individualized differences in reward sensitivity to music.
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New findings about white matter connectivity between auditory sensory processing areas (superior temporal gyrus) and emotional and social processing (medial prefrontal cortex, insula) which may explain the highly individualized differences in reward sensitivity to music. For example, in your students you may find varying responses to various forms of music that some love, some loathe, and others find it interferes with their concentration. These differences are a combination of brain function, culture, genetics, experience and emotions.
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That said, there is neurochemical evidence that music has the potential to manipulate hedonic states by involving the ancient reward circuit, with large interconnections between limbic regions, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, cingulate cortex, and prefrontal cortex, which all mediate emotional responses. (Reybrouck & Eerola, 2022) (P.155)
Dance and the Reward System in Adolescence
Movement is instrumental in the development of hippocampus, cortical activities, synaptic neuroplasticity and communication networking in the brain. It is both intranatal and postnatal as an intrinsic part of human development. Movement contributes to the development of cognitive skills and language acquisition. Movement synchronises the brain body interconnectivity.
Image via Laurentiu Morariu, Unsplash
“Humans dance for the purpose of intrinsic reward”
(Basso et al., (2020) (p.2.)
The Neurocentric Definition of Dance.
Dance encompasses an unlimited array of movement patterns that:
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are spontaneously or intentionally generated.
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are manifested for the purpose of ritual, performance, or social interactions; and
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engage a diverse network of brain regions that support neurobehavioral processes in seven distinct areas:
Sensory
Social
Motor
Emotional
Cognitive
Creative
Rhythmic
Dancing in a group creates a synchrony in the brains of the individuals and between the brains of the individuals. Called “The Synchronicity Hypothesis” (Basso et al., 2021, p. 2). Research has discovered that dancing enhances cognitive skills and initiates structural and functional changes in the brain. Dancers show increased theta activity – theta waves are associated with relaxation and creativity and accessing the subconscious mind. They are linked to the limbic system and hippocampal regions. Frequent weekly occurrence of dancing increases optimal networking in the brain. Different aspects of dance identify networking in a variety of brain regions e.g sensory, motor, cognitive and motivational. Dance involving touch can increase proprioception (body’s ability to sense movement, action and spatial awareness) through stimulation of the somatosensory system which stimulates brain networking activity. Touch in primates increases neural activity in the sensory cortical regions of the brain. Movement and cognitive processing enhances theta waves to facilitate memory formation. Cooperation between individuals in problem solving has been enhanced by group dancing. Music and dance will be further addressed as part of the module on neuroinformed strategies.
Module 3 Conclusion
In Module three you have learned about the importance of the Reward Circuitry in the adolescent brain. Adolescents are reward seeking and part of this process is about taking risks. You understand that the reward circuitry is complex in relation to adolescent reward seeking. You have learned that Dopamine
is both a neuromodulator and neurotransmitter relating to the reward system and influencing, risk taking, seeking adventure, achievement and the ultimate reward. You have learned that the Ventral Striatum is interconnected with the reward relevant sub-cortical region in the brain. Some negative manifestations
of the reward system in adolescence is the association between reward and punishment that may influence eating disorders and some forms of self harm.
Some strategies that directly impact positively on the reward system are music and dancing.
Thank you for watching this module and we hope you will get further benefit from module four. In module four you will learn about neuroinformed strategies to help manage challenging aspects of adolescent brain development and subsequent behaviours.
REFERENCES
Basso, J. C., Satyal, M. K., & Rugh, R. (2020). Dance on the Brain: Enhancing Intra- and Inter-Brain Synchrony. Front Hum Neurosci, 14, 584312. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.584312
Lloyd, E. C., Posner, J., Schebendach, J., Muratore, A. F., Hong, S., Ojeda, J., Rafanello, E., Steinglass, J. E., & Foerde, K. (2025). Food choice and neural reward systems in adolescents with anorexia nervosa and atypical anorexia nervosa. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 66(3), 378-389. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14066
Reybrouck, M., & Eerola, T. (2022). Musical Enjoyment and Reward: From Hedonic Pleasure to Eudaimonic Listening. Behavioral Sciences, 12(5), 154. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12050154