There is growing interest in the concept of an ‘adolescent sensitive period,’ but this phrase can mean many things. This concept can be explored in laboratory mice by manipulating experience during development and testing behavioral or brain function in adulthood. Another approach is to compare adolescent versus adult learning and brain function to look for adolescent gain of function. In my talk, I will share what we have learned using both approaches. I then hope to engage the audience in discussion of the idea that an adolescent sensitive period may exist in rodents for learning and decision making (and fronto-basal ganglia circuit function) to support adaptive foraging behavior (Lin et al., 2020;2022).