I just saw an Article in NPR. It is written by Richard Knox, it explains the development of the brain in adolescence. It is very interesting and help us to explain to our Teenager friends how they can take smarter decisions.
It relates the findings of Dr. Frances Jensen from the Children’s Hospital in Boston. Her son went to a drastic change of personality and behavior when he turned 16, like many teenagers. She couldn’t recognize her own Kid.
Contrary to what was previously thought (That the human brain was completely developed by the age of 10), the frontal lobes are not fully connected yet at this period of our life. This is the area that decides if the ideas are good or not, it works slower in teenagers as a result of lower quantities of myelin in it. Which acts as an insulator that facilitates the transmission of signals between neurons.
This slow processing leads to slower assessment of the consequences of our actions. The article describes an accident caused by the Doctor’s son on his way to high school, and mentions that recent studies show that neural insulation isn’t complete until the mid-20s.
The realization that our actions affect other people requires insight, and that insight gets processed in the frontal lobe, since this lobe is not fully connected, we have less of it. That would explain the common self-centered selfish attitudes that we have in our teenager years.
Teenager brains are also more prone to addictions being this a side effect of its facility to learn and to be excited. She says that kid’s and teenager’s brains chemistry is more responsive. But that responsiveness can create habits faster than in adults.
There are many biological advantages at any moment in our lives, we need to remember that it is not always true that the grass is greener at the other side of the fence.