Adolescent brain development has become an important target for governments to act upon, in the name of healthy individuals and economic prosperity. In the Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing , initiated by the Government Office for Science, adolescent behaviour was identified as one of the key challenges for UK policy. The report draws on 'state of the art′ evidence from scientific experts, to recommend ways in which to 'capitalize′ on mental faculties to improve, boost, and make maximum use (...) of the cognitive resources and mental health of individuals during the entire lifespan. Specifically, through a close analysis of the category of adolescence in cognitive neuroscience, we examine the perspective of personhood espoused by MCW. We show how the notion of 'plasticity′, which underpins the recommendations about how to “make the most” of adolescents′ developing brains and cognitive resources, creates vital linkages between neuroscience and neosocial policy. (shrink)

The development of action representation during adolescence was investigated using a visually guided pointing motor task to test motor imagery. Forty adolescents and 33 adults were instructed to both execute and imagine hand movements from a starting point to a target of varying size. Reaction time was measured for both Execution and Imagery conditions. There is typically a close association between time taken to execute and image actions in adults because action execution and action simulation rely on overlapping neural circuitry. (...) Further, representations of actions are governed by the same speed-accuracy trade-off as real actions, as expressed by Fitts’ Law. In the current study, performance on the VGPT in both adolescents and adults conformed to Fitts’ Law in E and I conditions. However, the strength of association between E and I significantly increased with age, reflecting a refinement in action representation between adolescence and adulthood. (shrink)