Stress and the adolescent brain: Amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuitry and ventral striatum as developmental targets

• Adolescent changes in affective neurobiology increases vulnerability to stressors.
• Amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and ventral striatum are consistent targets of stress.
• Potential mechanisms for affect dysregulation that emerges in adolescence.

Adolescence is a time in development when significant changes occur in affective neurobiology. These changes provide a prolonged period of plasticity to prepare the individual for independence. However, they also render the system highly vulnerable to the effects of environmental stress exposures. Here, we review the human literature on the associations between stress-exposure and developmental changes in amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and ventral striatal dopaminergic systems during the adolescent period. Despite the vast differences in types of adverse exposures presented in his review, these neurobiological systems appear consistently vulnerable to stress experienced during development, providing putative mechanisms to explain why affective processes that emerge during adolescence are particularly sensitive to environmental influences.