section_path: Cognitive development/Inhibition
section_name: Inhibition
paragraph_text: Inhibition
  
  Related to their increased tendency for risk-taking, adolescents show impaired behavioral inhibition, including deficits in extinction learning. This has important implications for engaging in risky behavior such as unsafe sex or illicit drug use, as adolescents are less likely to inhibit actions that may have negative outcomes in the future. This phenomenon also has consequences for behavioral treatments based on the principle of extinction, such as cue exposure therapy for anxiety or drug addiction. It has been suggested that impaired inhibition, specifically extinction, may help to explain adolescent propensity to relapse to drug-seeking even following behavioral treatment for addiction.