Summary: Dopamine Response In Adolescents

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Sex is a very taboo topic for teenagers that is met with shyness, excitement, and a surge of hormones - it is no wonder that this novel experience is one that many risk-seeking, dopamine filled teenagers are drawn towards. Looking to research for explanation, Galván's paper details a monkey behavioral study done to parallel dopamine response in adolescents. The experiment showed a resounding conclusion that repeating the same reward again and again led to the dopamine response moving earlier in time towards the cue rather than to the reward itself, seemingly in anticipation. Additionally, these dopamine responses mapped on to faster reaction times in behavior. Relating this to adolescent sexual behaviors, then, it would seem that after multiple

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