Nature & Nurture

Dr. Beatriz Luna is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, where she directs the Laboratory of Neurocognitive Development. Dr. Luna is an expert in adolescent brain development and the neurodevelopment of the dopamine reward system, and its interactions with inhibitory control to produce developmental changes in sensation seeking and risk-taking.
In this episode, we discuss Dr. Luna’s Driven Dual-Systems Model of adolescent-risk taking, adolescence as a sensitive period for neurocognitive development, and how the dopamine reward system changes with age and puberty. We discuss the role of hormones explaining sex differences in brain development, sensation seeking, and risk-taking, and their evolutionary origins and comparisons in other mammals. Lastly, we discuss translational implications of Dr. Luna’s work for understanding mental health, and findings from clinical endocrinology populations informing theories of how hormones influence brain development prenatally and during puberty.
00:28 Exploring Adolescent Development and Decision Making
01:43 Adolescence: Risk-Taking, Sensation Seeking, and the Dopamine System
03:59 Dopamine Dynamics: From Adolescence to Adulthood
08:02 The Driven Dual Systems Model: Understanding Adolescent Behavior
11:21 Evolutionary Psychology and Mental Health
18:13 The Role of Puberty in Adolescent Development
23:19 Excitation-Inhibition Balance and Brain Plasticity
32:56 Hormonal Influences on Brain Development
35:57 Social and Environmental Factors in Pubertal Development
37:19 Evolutionary Perspectives on Puberty and Development
38:46 Stress, Plasticity, and Extended Adolescence
43:59 Diet, Environment, and Pubertal Timing
47:16 Prenatal Hormones and Sex Differences
51:56 Gender Identity, Hormones, and Decision-Making

[@mariomario1462]

You should get dan romer on as his theories and "lifespan wisdom model" his seem to make more sense