Reward processing and reinforcement learning: from adolescence to aging

The neurocognitive systems that underlie the ability to process rewards and learn from reinforcement undergo substantial changes across the adult lifespan. Adolescence is often characterized as a developmental period with a heightened sensitivity to reward and healthy aging is typically associated with a decline in learning from reinforcement. In this Chapter we review how the psychological and neural mechanisms that underpin reward processing and reinforcement learning change from adolescence to older adulthood. We consider behavioral and neuroimaging studies, as well as how different reward and learning contexts, such as gain vs. loss and social vs. non-social information, may alter reward processing and reinforcement learning abilities. We end by considering the challenges and opportunities of conducting developmental and aging studies in computational neuroscience and suggest future directions for the field.