Biography

Dr. Adriana Galván is a Professor of Psychology and Dean of Undergraduate Education at UCLA. She received her B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University and her PhD in Neuroscience from Cornell. She is the Director of the Developmental Neuroscience Laboratory where she studies adolescent brain development with a particular interest in the neural systems that support learning, motivation, and exploratory behavior and Co-Executive Director of the Center for the Developing Adolescent. Her research has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, NIMH, NICHD, Jacobs Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation. She is the recipient of the APA Boyd McCandless Early Career Award, the William T. Grant Scholars Award, the APA Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions, and the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Young Investigator Award. In 2018 she was a Fulbright Scholar in Barcelona and in 2019 she was named a Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE) and the Troland Award from the National Academy of Science.

Website: https://www.psych.ucla.edu/faculty/page/agalvan

Learning, Motivation and Effort in the Adolescent Brain

Session Type: Invited Talk

Abstract

In the past two decades there has been an explosion of research on the adolescent brain. Using neuroimaging technology, this research has demonstrated the brain continues to develop through the mid-20s and that there is a high degree of neuroplasticity during adolescence. These normative developmental changes help explain characteristic changes in decision-making, motivation, learning, and social awareness as young people undergo puberty and adolescence. This talk describes a series of fMRI studies that examine the role of effort, learning and motivation on decision-making in a community sample of adolescents.

Sub Unit

• Invited Program

Moderator

• Cecile D Ladouceur, University of Pittsburgh

Speaker

• Adriana Galván, University of California - Los Angeles

Introducer

• Angelica Alonso, University of Maryland - College Park